Funder rules change; always read the current call and your own institution's subaward policy.
If your project includes fieldwork or data from Vietnam, the partner budget is where good intentions most often fail — not because the money is insufficient, but because of how it was set and how it will be paid.
Pick the role deliberately
Co-investigator with a work package. The partner holds defined objectives, their own budget line, and authorship rights. Slower to set up, and the only arrangement that supports a real long-term collaboration.
Service subcontract. The partner delivers a specified output for a fee. Administratively simple, but it carries no authorship unless you write that in separately — and if the partner is generating the data, treating them as a vendor is the arrangement most likely to be criticised as extractive.
Choose based on who is generating intellectual contribution, not on which is easier for your finance office.
Let the partner set their own figures
Budgets drafted from abroad are almost always wrong in the same direction: salary lines roughly right, fieldwork lines badly underestimated.
What foreign teams typically miss: domestic travel to multiple provinces; per-participant costs and compensation for participants' time; interpretation and transcription; local approvals and administrative fees; and the partner institution's own overhead.
Ask for the partner's figures with their basis, then question anything that looks off — rather than sending them a number to fit into.
Payment schedule matters more than the total
Many Western institutions reimburse after expenditure is documented. Many Vietnamese institutions cannot pre-finance months of fieldwork, and individual researchers certainly cannot.
Negotiate advance instalments tied to milestones. If your institution genuinely cannot advance funds, say so early so the work plan can be sequenced around it — do not let the partner discover it after the first field trip.
Also check bank transfer costs and currency handling. A fixed fee per transfer makes many small payments expensive; consolidating them saves real money.
Reporting standards
Ask what financial documentation your funder requires, then ask the partner whether their accounting office can produce it. Mismatches here stall payments for months.
Where the funder allows it, agree on the simplest compliant format at the start, and budget staff time for the reporting itself. Financial reporting is work, and unpaid work gets done late.
Cost sharing and in-kind contributions
If your funder requires matching contributions, be explicit about whether the partner is expected to provide any, and get written confirmation from their institution before submission.
In-kind contributions — staff time, laboratory access, premises — should be valued and recorded, not treated as free. Recording them also protects the partner's standing in their own institution.
Four things to settle before you submit
Who owns the data, where is it stored, and what may each party use it for afterwards?
Who pays open-access publication charges, and is that in the budget?
What are the authorship criteria, and who arbitrates?
What happens to committed funds if the project ends early?
Start small if you can
Seed and networking grants — a joint workshop, a short visit, a pilot study — are far easier to obtain and give both sides a track record of delivering together.
A completed pilot with clean financial reporting is the strongest possible basis for a larger joint application, and it surfaces administrative mismatches while the amounts are still small.
Should the Vietnamese partner be a co-investigator or a subcontractor?
Base it on intellectual contribution. If the partner is designing work or generating data, co-investigator status with authorship rights is the appropriate arrangement.
Why are partner fieldwork budgets often too low?
Because they are drafted by people unfamiliar with local costs. Domestic travel, participant compensation, interpretation and local administrative fees are the lines most often underestimated.
Can we reimburse after expenditure like we do domestically?
Often not workable. Many partner institutions cannot pre-finance fieldwork, so advance instalments tied to milestones are usually necessary.
Do we need a written agreement for a small collaboration?
At minimum a short memorandum covering data rights, authorship criteria and deliverables. For funded work, a formal institutional agreement is normal.
