KOICA Launches Call for Proposals for New Northern Region Higher Education Capacity Building Program... New Northern Region ODA Fully Underway

Applications Accepted Until the 13th, Open to Domestic Universities and Research Institutions

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA announced on the 12th that it will publicly recruit domestic universities and research institutions to participate in the "New Northern High Education Capacity Building Program."

The New Northern High Education Capacity Building Program is a project that supports a bundle of activities related to strengthening the research and educational capabilities of local partner universities in New Northern countries to nurture outstanding talents and contribute to mutual prosperity. These activities include △improvement of higher education policies and systems △improvement of higher education curricula △support for research and development and technology startups.

The recruitment fields are two per country for Mongolia and Uzbekistan: △Mongolia focuses on urban development and livestock, △Uzbekistan on information and communication technology (ICT) and healthcare. The recruitment fields were selected by comprehensively considering the talent development plans and demands of the partner countries, industrial outlooks, and government policies. If selected, each university will receive up to 5 million USD (approximately 5.8 billion KRW) in project funding.

Previously, KOICA announced plans in 2019 to introduce an educational project in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region based on the "Minnesota Project" model for educational development. Accordingly, a call for proposals for the higher education capacity building program was conducted targeting five countries in the New Southern region, and this year, the program will be expanded to two countries in the New Northern region (Mongolia and Uzbekistan).

A distinctive feature of the New Northern High Education Capacity Building Program is that universities selected for the project are granted priority in project implementation and proceed under the responsibility of the selected university. This allows proposing institutions to freely design the project content, enabling creative project planning that fully utilizes each institution's expertise.

Applications will be accepted online and by mail until November 13. The final results will be announced in the first quarter of next year after first and second evaluations and preliminary investigations. For more details, please refer to the KOICA website or contact the Middle East Central Office via email.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.