Hanyang University Selected for 2026 Seoul Campus Town Project

Promoting Regional Coexistence
in Collaboration with Seongdong District

Hanyang University announced on August 28 that it has been selected as the lead university for the 2026 Seoul Campus Town project, an initiative promoted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Hanyang University campus. Hanyang University

As a result, Hanyang University will collaborate with Seongdong District to establish the "Hanyang-Seongdong Next Unicorn Campus" and will receive a total project budget of 4.8 billion won (1.2 billion won annually) over the next four years.

The Seoul Campus Town project is Seoul’s flagship startup support program, designed to discover and nurture youth startup companies and to build a sustainable startup ecosystem centered around universities, leveraging the human, material, and intellectual resources of academic institutions.

Since its launch in 2017, the program has supported the entire startup lifecycle, including providing startup spaces and expert mentoring. Beginning in 2026, it will be linked with the Ministry of Education’s Regional Innovation-led University Support System (RISE) project to focus on fostering high-potential promising companies and creating "Baby Unicorns."

Through this project, Hanyang University will combine campus town, university, and district startup spaces to provide a total of 15,000 square meters of startup activity space for resident companies. The university also plans to operate specialized programs to spread a startup culture on campus and systematically discover promising entrepreneurs.

In particular, by organically linking the Seoul Campus Town and the Ministry of Education’s RISE project, the university will sequentially implement initiatives including: nurturing 660 artificial intelligence (AI) specialists over four years; strengthening the "Born Global" strategy targeting overseas market entry; fostering 55 promising startups annually; and producing at least four "Baby Unicorns" each year.

To achieve these goals, the university will enhance practical support such as acquiring overseas certifications and intellectual property rights, matching with global partners, providing overseas testbeds, and expanding industry-academia cooperation networks.

Lee Kijeong, President of Hanyang University, stated, "Through the Seoul Campus Town, we will turn the potential of youth entrepreneurship into reality, and by linking with RISE, we will develop Hanyang University into a gateway for startups on the path to becoming global unicorns."