Pohang City R&BD Institution Heads Gathered! ... Securing the City's Future Competitiveness

Holding the Heads of Institutions Meeting... Sharing Current Issues and Exploring Cooperation Plans for Key Policies

Mayor Lee Gang-deok Emphasizes Discovering New Projects by R&BD Institutions and Securing National Funding

On the 25th, Pohang City held the 'Pohang R&BD Institution Heads Council' at the city hall's main conference room, attended by Mayor Lee Kang-deok and over 30 participants including heads of 21 R&BD institutions within the region.

On the 25th, Pohang City held the 'Pohang R&BD Institution Heads Council' at City Hall.

At the meeting, the city's responsible department head presented the direction for promoting key city projects and plans for securing national funding. Following this, each institution shared presentations on the major achievements and current issues of their ongoing projects, as well as plans for discovering new growth engines and focusing on securing national funds.

Choi Do-sung, President of Handong Global University, presented the 'Glocal University 30 Project' plan, which is being promoted to enhance Pohang's global competitiveness and create a sustainable knowledge-industry-academia community. Lee Ji-o, Director of the Pohang Biotechnology Research Center, shared opinions with the institutions regarding the 'Exosome-based Advanced Bio Initiative Project,' a new project underway in the bio sector.

Additionally, the Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) announced projects including the development of large-scale turquoise hydrogen technology capable of actively responding to innovative technology development and environmental issues, as well as a secondary battery industrial wastewater treatment project. The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (Pohang Robot Demonstration Base) committed to actively discovering new regional growth engines and creating jobs through the development of marine unmanned system demonstration testing and evaluation technologies.

During the comprehensive discussion, participants deliberated on proactive collaboration strategies among R&BD institutions in response to the historic increase in next year's national R&D budget, including discovering linked and cooperative projects in new industrial fields and government-funded projects.

In particular, Pohang reached a consensus on the need to actively respond to the diversification of the steel-centered industrial structure by fostering new industries such as secondary batteries, hydrogen, bio, AI, and digital industries.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok emphasized, "To secure future growth engines and urban competitiveness, the consolidation of each institution's capabilities and collaboration is paramount," and urged, "Let us join forces to secure national funding through discovering new projects and developing large-scale projects."

Established in 2016, the Pohang R&BD Institution Council consists of 21 institutions including local universities, research institutes, and support organizations. Each institution proactively plans, discovers, and attracts new projects to secure national funding by leveraging their respective capabilities.