How Korea and the EU are collaborating in Research and Innovation?
The Cooperation between EU and Korea is important for both sides as there is strong potential to work for mutual benefit in a wide range of areas.
South Korea can be considered as one of the EU's closest international partners. South Korea is the only country in the world to have economic, political, security, and digital agreements with the EU in effect. These consist of the Strategic Partnership and Framework Agreement(2010), the Free Trade Agreement(2011) and the Framework Participation Agreement for EU crisis management operations(2014).
Furthermore, South Korea and the EU signed a Digital Partnership Agreement in 2022 and are expected to sign a Horizon Europe Association Agreement at the end of the 2024
The R&I cooperation between EU and Korea has performed more than 177 joint research projects since 2007. Until now, Korea has participated in 123 projects in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Also, the EC’s Joint Research Centre cooperates with Korean Institutions mainly in the fields of health, measurement science, energy and transport, construction standards, nuclear safety and security.
On 14 February 2022 at the 7th EU-ROK Joint S&T Cooperation committee meeting, EU and Korea addressed ICT, Health/BIO, Climate Change and Emerging Future Technology, Research Hub, and Human capital development as five priority areas for cooperation. Korea formally expressed its interest to associate to Horizon Europe by submitting a Letter of Intent during the meeting.
On 22 May 2023 at the 10th Korea-EU Summit, the European Commission and the Republic of Korea have launched formal negotiations on Korea's association to Horizon Europe, the EU's Framework Programme for research and innovation. Next year on 25 March, Korea and the EU concluded the formal negotiations. As a result, Korea will join the Horizon Europe starting from 2025 and will become the first Asian and third country to join Horizon Europe.
On 28 November 2022, a new Digital Partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Korea was launched. This future-oriented partnership will strengthen the cooperation between trusted and technologically advanced partners in the digital area that is crucial for the sustainable advance of European and Korean economies, and for our trade and investment ties. It will foster joint work on semiconductors, next generation mobile networks, quantum and High-Performance Computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, platforms, data and skills.
At the end of March 2024, the 2nd Digital Partnership Council was held in Brussels. They took stock of the progress achieved since the first digital partnership council (June 2023) and agreed on a list of key areas to further cooperate. Main outcomes includes the first Korea-EU semiconductor researchers forum, establishment of Quantum S&T Cooperation Centre, joint call in semiconductor and 5G/6G and so on.
KERC collected the examples of Korea-EU joint research in Horizon 2020 supported by National Research Foundation of Korea through 'Korea-EU Joint Research Support Programme' and 'EU Cooperation Promotion Programme.'
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