Viet Nam-Belgium project funds paints made from farm waste
A student team from the Viet Nam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) has received EUR 1,000 in funding from the Vietnam-Belgium project to develop paints from agricultural by-products.
For the students behind “GenuiArt - Painting with Organic Watercolors, Bringing New Life through Recycled Handicrafts”, the EUR 1,000 grant will let them run experiments that were previously beyond their budget. The funding will help the team explore more raw materials, improve pigment extraction methods, test product quality, and further develop watercolor paints made from agricultural by-products.
Vu Thi Huyen Dieu, a student in class K69QLTNMTA at the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, VNUA, and the project leader, said the team learned about the Vietnam-Belgium project's funding opportunity through the VNUA 2026 Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.
Participating in the competition helped the team refine its idea, gain access to experts and clarify the product's development direction. The project was selected as one of the competition's Top 12 promising entries and later chosen for funding.
Previously, the team had mainly worked with readily available materials such as avocado peels, carrots, oranges and watermelons for laboratory experiments at the university, under the guidance of lecturers. However, limited resources made it difficult to expand the range of raw materials and conduct systematic comparative experiments.
Securing funding will allow the team to develop a more structured research plan, with clearer objectives and a dedicated budget. Dieu stressed, however, that the grant is only an enabling condition for the project's next stages. The team has not yet used the funding to carry out the planned activities. It is currently preparing an implementation plan and completing the procedures required to receive the grant. All grant-funded activities remain at the preparation stage.
Under the proposed budget allocation, 30% of the funding will go towards expanding the range of raw materials to include different types of vegetable and fruit by-products with a variety of colors, in addition to those already tested. The team hopes to identify more suitable by-product sources for producing different colors.
Another 30% is expected to support research, testing and optimization of technologies for extracting pigments, producing colors and improving the stability of natural pigments. This work directly supports the goal of enhancing product quality.
The team plans to allocate 20% to quality assessment and testing, focusing on aesthetic appeal, color durability and environmental characteristics. The remaining 20% will be used to refine product samples, standardize production processes, optimize raw material costs and gradually assess the potential for commercialization.
The GenuiArt project began with students' desire to use agricultural by-products to create materials for artistic activities. Rather than discarding vegetable and fruit peels and pulp after use, the team sees them as potential resources that can be further utilized.
The research focuses on extracting natural pigments to develop watercolor paints, alongside creating handicraft products from recycled materials. Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) technology is being applied in the research process to extract colors from agricultural by-products.
The Viet Nam-Belgium project is an international cooperation programme between Vietnam National University of Agriculture and French-speaking universities in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation of Belgium, with funding from the Academy for Research and Higher Education - Commission for Development Cooperation (ARES-CCD). The project focuses on strengthening research, training and the transfer of scientific results in livestock production, aquaculture and socio-economic development. It also aims to improve students' professional skills, connect them with employment opportunities and provide scientific evidence to support sustainable agricultural and rural development in Vietnam.
Alongside “GenuiArt - Painting with Organic Watercolours, Bringing New Life through Recycled Handicrafts”, 11 other student projects at VNUA have also been selected for funding under the Vietnam-Belgium project, with each receiving EUR 1,000.
€ 1 = VND 28.094,74 - Source: Vietcombank.
Mai Dan