Business-university collaboration in R&D is one important mechanism intended to facilitate technological innovation. Indeed, collaborations and partnerships contribute to developing networks with academics to facilitate knowledge exchange and supporting the training and education of skilled scientists and researchers.
On November 30, UNIST held a conference, entitled ‘UNIST Family Company & Venture Start-up Conference‘ to help bring 150 representatives of small businesses, local partners, and the business sector together. The primary purpose of this event was to find ways to grow together with the local communities and business partners.
Earlier that day, UNIST also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Ulsan and the Ulsan Small & Medium Business Association to pledge mutual support for one another in the economic advancement and development through support for local businesses.
UNIST provides a wide range of business support services that assist start-ups and small businesses. The ‘UNIST Family Company‘ is a management of technology consulting system that help solve technology issue that companies face today. The ‘UNI BIZ⁺ Platform’ is a business start-up support system for joint venture business creation. This is a system that not only to help researchers and local inventors with technology transfer, but also help them commercialize their discoveries through licensing, thereby opening its doors to foreign investment.
In the memorandum of understanding, the three organizations promise to expand cooperation in various areas, including the establishment of a foundation to provide support to SMEs. The signing ceremony of the MoU was followed by the expert forum, consisting of technology transfer consultation meeting and presentations on new promising technology. A total of 12 technologies have been introduced at the event, including ‘Environmental Control Nanomaterial Testing Machine (Prof. Ju-Young Kim)’, ‘LASER Welding Monitoring System (Duck Young Kim)’, and ‘Active Situation Awareness Camera System (Prof. Hyun Jong Yang)
“We will continuously endeavor to foster those joint ventures, so that UNIST will be a role model in realizing the Creative Economy,” says UNIST President Mooyoung Jung. He continues by saying, “Through this partnership, we hope to present a new future for Ulsan. This will be realized via the sophistication of region industry structure through the new corporate establishment, corporation investment attraction, thereby expanding our local businesses into foreign countries.”
