‘Pohang Centered’ Jeonjiboguk in Full Swing … Building a Secondary Battery Co-Growth Innovation Ecosystem

Gyeongbuk·Pohang Secondary Battery Industry Business Council Regular Monthly Meeting Held

POSTECH Battery Specialized Graduate School Attraction, Core High-Level Talent Development

Pohang City is taking full-scale action to drive South Korea's future innovation growth and leap to a global superpower through the co-growth of secondary battery companies and the cultivation of top core experts in secondary batteries.

On the 21st, an industry-academia-research cooperation agreement was signed at the Lahan Hotel in Pohang to attract the POSTECH Battery Specialized Graduate School.

On the 21st, the city held the ‘2024 1st Regular Monthly Meeting’ of the Secondary Battery Industry Corporate Council and the ‘Industry-Academia-Research-Association Business Agreement Ceremony for Attracting POSTECH Battery Specialized Graduate School’ at the Lahan Hotel in Pohang.

About 100 stakeholders from industry, academia, research, and government attended the event, including Mayor Lee Kang-deok, Baek In-gyu, Chairperson of the Pohang City Council, Lee Jung-woo, Director of the Metaverse Science Bureau of Gyeongbuk Province, Kim Byung-hoon, Chairman of the Secondary Battery Corporate Council, and Jung Kyu-yeol, Vice President of POSTECH. They agreed to strengthen win-win cooperation among local secondary battery companies and unite efforts to attract the battery specialized graduate school to POSTECH.

The Gyeongbuk Pohang Secondary Battery Corporate Council, launched in October last year to establish a sound local secondary battery industry ecosystem, held its first regular monthly meeting of the year. During the meeting, membership certificates were presented to six newly joined member companies, and leading company EcoPro Materials shared process technologies related to materials and raw materials, providing an opportunity for exchange among members.

Following the monthly meeting, the business agreement ceremony was held to unite the capabilities of the industry and local innovation institutions to attract the battery specialized graduate school at POSTECH, which the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to newly designate this year, and to strengthen mutual cooperation and support.

To this end, Pohang City, Gyeongbuk Province, POSTECH, the Gyeongbuk Pohang Secondary Battery Corporate Council (including 37 companies such as EcoPro Materials), Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Gyeongbuk TP, Pohang TP, and Pohang Metal Materials Industry Promotion Agency will establish a cooperative system to ▲ foster the secondary battery industry and create a growth foundation ▲ develop and operate industry-demand-tailored curricula ▲ promote industry-academia-research cooperative technology development and exchanges, and actively cooperate to cultivate core talent.

The specialized graduate school is a graduate school designated and supported by the government to expand the output of master's and doctoral experts leading advanced industries and to improve quality. Following the semiconductor field last year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to expand this year to include semiconductor (3 schools), battery (3 schools), display (1 school), and bio (1 school) fields.

Universities selected as specialized graduate schools will receive annual support of about 3 billion KRW per university for up to five years for building educational environments such as research equipment, developing and operating curricula, and promoting industry-academia projects linked with companies.

POSTECH, which changed its Steel and Energy Materials Graduate School to the Eco-friendly Materials Graduate School last year and declared the full-scale research of eco-friendly technologies including secondary batteries, plans to establish a system for cultivating and utilizing master's and doctoral innovative talents to lead the national advanced strategic industry through the operation of the battery specialized graduate school and to advance the industry-academia cooperation ecosystem.

Pohang City, which laid the foundation for a great transformation to lead national industrial innovation by attracting the national advanced strategic industry specialized complex for secondary batteries, identifies companies and talent as key factors to gain an advantage in global competition. The city plans to actively communicate with companies and fully promote the cultivation of innovative talents equipped with professional knowledge and practical skills.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “Companies and talent are the future and hope of South Korea's battery industry,” adding, “Through organic cooperation among industry, academia, research, and government, we will cultivate excellent professionals needed by companies and establish a foundation for Pohang to clearly take the lead in the secondary battery industry competition.”

Along with the corporate council’s monthly meetings, Pohang City plans to expand the forum for fostering the secondary battery industry by holding the ‘Battery National Defense Expert TF Meeting’ in Seoul in March, inviting secondary battery companies and academic experts.