With the orientation of becoming an international standard research university, VNU focuses on four key fields: Natural Sciences and Medicine; Social Sciences and Humanities; Engineering and Technology; Interdisciplinary science.

VNU also focuses on investing in and developing its science and technology potential with a system of more than 200 laboratories, nearly 100 research teams at affiliate level and 30 strong research teams at VNU level.

With the strength of interdisciplinary scientific research, applying science and technology to real life, VNU's scientists actively participate in reviewing theory and practice of the Party and State; focus on research that provides scientific bases and arguments for policy consultancy and criticism; timely assess and forecast the political and diplomatic situation in the region to effectively support the struggle to protect territorial sovereignty and national security and defense ...

Many core technologies and science products have been successfully developed and transferred for commercialization.

For many years, VNU has been No. 1 in Vietnam and in the world’s top 500 best universities in innovation and social impact index according to Scimago Rankings. VNU has an annual average of more than 600 ISI/Scopus scientific articles and a large number of research results presented at prestigious domestic and international conferences and published in scientific journals.

In recent years, VNU has further been assigned to host the building and implementing of key national science and technology projects by the Party, State and Government. These projects have confirmed the prestige of VNU’s academic research and the trust of the Party, State and Government in VNU.