The 5th EU-Korea research and innovation day

Source: European Commission (EC) i, published on Friday, January 10 2020.

On 30 October, the 5th EU i-Korea research and innovation day successfully took place at the Millennium Hilton Seoul Hotel in Seoul, Korea, with more than 350 participants. The event was co-organised by the EU Delegation to the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) with a full one-day programme. Supported by the embassies of the Member States to Korea, the event intensively showed Europe's excellence in science, its capacity and opportunities.

In the morning session, Dr. Jung-Hye Roe, President of the NRF opened the event, followed by a welcoming speech from Dr. Michael Reiterer, Ambassador of the European Union to Korea, and congratulatory remarks from Dr. Mi Ock Mun, 1st Vice Minister of Science and ICT. As the keynote speaker, Ms. Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation of DG RTD emphasised the importance of international cooperation in research and innovation by introducing the EU's next framework programme, Horizon Europe, highlighting key novelties such as missions, association, partnership, and so forth.

In the following two morning sessions, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, EUREKA and EUROSTARS2, and relevant funding programmes of Korean funding agencies were introduced. Of note, participants expressed their great satisfaction with the practical session (session2), which provided guidelines on how to participate in the European R&I programmes, access calls for proposals, and how to find the best European partners.

During the morning session and until networking lunch time, 15 EU Member States each set up its own individual promotion tables outside of the main conference room for bilateral meetings with Korean participants. The MS shared their up-to-date R&I policies and bilateral and/or multilateral programmes open to Korea.

In the afternoon, 8 parallel thematic sessions on ICT, Bio/Health, Nanotechnology, Energy, Transport i, Climate/Environment, Researchers' Exchange (mobility), and Industrial Cooperation through EUREKA/EUROSTARS2 took place in separate rooms. The parallel sessions were mainly organised by European or Korean National Contact Points (NCPs) or programme experts, Korean researchers and funding agencies with experience in Horizon2020 in order to provide more detailed call information and close consultation to Korean researchers and innovators. At the same time, individual Q&A and 1:1 consultation between the participants and EU/MS/KR funding agencies/EURAXESS continued in a separate room.

According to the survey, approximately 80% of the participants were satisfied with the EU-KR Research & Innovation Day, and hoped this event continues in the future. The main reason for participating in the event was to obtain information on EU R&I programmes, and participants found the presentations on the Horizon2020 & Horizon Europe policies and practical guidelines for actual participation to be most helpful. Also, around 85% were very satisfied with the thematic parallel sessions moderated by the European NCPs and the Korean participants that actually participated in the Horizon2020 projects.

The EU-Korea Research & Innovation Day 2019, garnering great interest from the participants and satisfactorily rewarding them, ended successfully and now more active and diverse cooperation is expected to be forged through this event.