Gyeongbuk and Jeonnam National Universities Selected for 'Campus Innovation Park' to Foster Job Creation and Business Growth Hub

Ministries of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Education, and Small and Medium Venture Businesses Join Forces to Accelerate Progress

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 1st that Kyungpook National University and Chonnam National University have been finally selected as new sites for the 2021 Campus Innovation Park project.

The Campus Innovation Park project is a joint initiative by the three ministries to foster universities as hubs of innovative growth by transforming idle university land into urban high-tech industrial complexes and establishing industry-academia-research innovation hubs (corporate residency spaces), focusing on government projects to strengthen industry-academia-research cooperation and corporate capabilities.

Since the announcement of the 'Campus Innovation Park Establishment Plan' in 2019, three universities (Kangwon National University, Hannam University, and Hanyang University ERICA Campus) were selected as pilot projects, and the urban high-tech industrial complexes have been designated and construction started. To successfully promote the pilot projects and expand their outcomes, the government held a competition this year to select two new university sites, ultimately selecting and announcing Kyungpook National University and Chonnam National University.

This competition is the second since the 2019 Campus Innovation Park pilot project call, with a total of 23 universities submitting proposals, showing a high competition rate of 11.5 to 1.

The three ministries formed an evaluation committee of nine experts in industrial location, industry-academia cooperation, startup, and corporate development fields, selecting the final two universities through document review, on-site inspection, and presentation evaluation. The two universities finally selected were evaluated to have excellent development feasibility and industry-academia-research cooperation capabilities, as well as superior location conditions such as residential and transportation environments, amid high competition.

The government plans to promptly start establishing industrial complex plans for the newly selected sites, designate them as urban high-tech industrial complexes in the first half of next year, and begin construction in the second half, advancing the project with a sense of urgency.

A government official said, "The two universities selected through this competition will become innovative spaces that create local jobs and grow companies, following the existing pilot projects," adding, "As many universities and regions have shown keen interest in the two rounds of competitions, the three ministries will work together to build an industry-academia-research cooperation innovation ecosystem."