IFEZA and Foreign Universities to Work More Closely Together

Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA) had a meeting with universities located in the Incheon Global Campus on July 8 to discuss industry-academia collaboration. The meeting was attended by the heads of IFEZA, State University of New York, Korea, George Mason University Korea, Ghent University Global Campus and Incheon Global Campus Foundation.

At the meeting, the universities said that they would pursue cross-border cooperation by making use of their home campuses, introduce license and certificate programs from the campuses and seek collaboration opportunities in their fields of specialty such as bioprocess personnel training.

The importance of this type of co-working is increasing amid rapid social and job market changes such as Industry 4.0. Under the circumstances, Aalto University of Finland established Supercell based on its startup support program to post annual sales of 2.8 trillion won and Malmö, Sweden established Malmö University in a place previously used as a shipyard to turn itself into an advanced industrial city.

IFEZA is planning to gather as many opinions as possible from the universities with regard to such cooperation so that it can provide the maximum support possible. “In this era of Industry 4.0, industry, academia and research cooperation is a key factor for national competitiveness enhancement,” IFEZA Commissioner Lee Won-jae said, adding, “We will continue to make efforts so that the universities’ abundant human and technological resources can be better utilized for industrial innovation in South Korea.”