1st Vice Minister Lee Kwan-sup of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy delivers an opening speech at Korea EUREKA Day 2015.

President Chung Jae-hoon of Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology gives a welcoming speech at the event.

Director General for Industrial Technology Policy Cha Dong-hyung of the MOTIE holds a copy of an agreement to renew Korea’s standing as an associate member of EUREKA at Korea EUREKA Day 2015 in Seoul.(Photos:MOTIE)

Korea EUREKA Day 2015 took place at the Seoul Hyatt Hotel May 20 to May 22, attracting 500 Korean and European government representatives, technology experts and researchers.

1st Vice Minister Lee Kwan-sup of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the international conference held under the catchphrase “Global Innovation for Social Challengers” was hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Swiss Eureka Chairmanship and organized by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology. EUREKA is an intergovernmental organization for market-driven industrial R&D. It is a decentralized network facilitating the coordination of national funding on innovation aiming to boost the productivity and competitiveness of European industries.

Director General for Industrial Technology Policy Cha Dong-hyung of the MOTIE said the latest event focused on four themes with high social concern: IT and Convenient Life (smart city, IoT, smart transportation, Big Data, etc.); Healthy Society into Action (bio, medicines, medical devices, personalized healthcare, etc.); Safe and Secure Societies of Tomorrow (personal information protection, information security, national disaster prevention, etc); and Sustainable Living for a Greener Future (green tech, renewable energy, energy harvesting, etc). 

President Chung Jae-hoon of Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology said the participating Korean institutions and companies held one-on-one negotiations on technology collaboration with their European counterparts to explore joint R&D tasks. Figures released by MOTIE before the opening of the conference showed that advance appointments on one-on-one consultations on technology collaboration reached as much as 260.

In a keynote speech, Pahk Heui-jae, president and national CTP of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning at MOTIE, spoke about the creative economy, virtuous cycle of innovation, and 13 new growth engine projects. He touched upon nurturing innovative SMEs to evolve them into “global hidden champions.” Pahk stressed everything from an R&D paradigm shift to cooperation of academia, institutes and industry. 

Other key-note speakers included Andreas Gut, EUREKA National Project Coordinator Chairman, and Lee Sang-keun, director of Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT). Lee said KIAT supports measures for EUREKA participants to address such issues as insufficient global expert manpower, difficulties in searching partners and insufficient knowledge of international IP/contract agreement laws. Regarding Korea’s rising status in EUREKA, he said that Korea has been benefiting from the EUREKA 1+1 rule since 2012, and the nation is now a Eurostar S2 partner country. Korea was granted the right to participate in HLG meetings last June, said Lee, adding that the nation aspires to become a full EUREKA member. 

For instance, GMT, a Korean SME, succeeded in developing a multi-purpose comprehensive Korea UREKA Day 2015 thanks to the EUREKA program. At Korea EUREKA Day 2011, GMT teamed up with Aselsan of Turkey and Thales of France for technology collaboration. GMT developed Korea EUREKA Day 2015 thanks to Aselsan, which provided marine image treatment technologies, and Thales, which transferred information classification and identification technologies.