Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group Connects New Interactive Values with Local Community

‘Jiyeok Baljeon Forum’·‘Hyupdang Johap’ ‥ Leading Innovation through Building a Win-Win Cooperative Regional Innovation Platform

Dong-Eui University, where major classes of the College of IT Convergence Components and Materials Engineering are in progress.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Dong-Eui University (President Han Su-hwan) has a research center specializing in artificial intelligence (AI).

This center was selected in June this year for a public project by the Ministry of Science and ICT, receiving a large budget including national and city funds to lead intelligent innovation in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector for local companies.

The main player is the ‘Busan Artificial Intelligence Grand ICT Research Center (Director Jung Seok-chan).’

This project, which supports the cultivation of innovative local talent through large-scale industry-academia collaborative research, is funded with a total budget of 18.75 billion KRW over eight years, including 15 billion KRW from national funds, 1.5 billion KRW from city funds, and 2.2 billion KRW from university funds.

It is carried out in connection with four key regional industries: marine, port, and logistics industries; manufacturing and robotics industries; medical and healthcare industries; and smart city industries.

Dong-Eui University has already selected four specialized fields closely related to local industries?smart IT manufacturing technology, tourism and convention, Korean medicine bio and healthcare, and public administration and social welfare services?and established its own specialized project groups.

The thread that easily connects local society, companies, industries, and practice is managed by the Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group (Director Lee Im-geon).

This thread is creating a new breeze in the region. Among the university innovation cases of the Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group, the ‘local community’ innovation field cannot be overlooked.

The Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group is building a cooperative regional innovation platform based on mutual growth and is promoting various regional development projects.

This project group creates and implements creative ideas that can solve regional problems and realize multi-value communities, thereby creating a sustainable cooperation model that enhances the value of the local community.

The Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group and Busanjin-gu held the "2020 Busanjin-gu Regional Development Forum" on June 19 at the conference room on the 2nd floor of the Dong-Eui University main building.

To this end, Dong-Eui University is promoting core projects such as the Regional Development Forum and the establishment of a cooperative for small footwear manufacturers.

If such interactive mutual growth capabilities spread throughout the local community, a system capable of creating an autonomous regional vision will be established.

Since 2017, the Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group has been seeking strategic solutions to local issues through the Regional Development Forum, which it operates with Busanjin-gu and Dong-gu.

Internally, to utilize its R&D capabilities for the region, it has formed a Regional Development Forum centered on a local network and has continued the project since 2017.

It opens a discussion platform with forum members from various fields deeply involved in local issues to discover current tasks, which the university then undertakes and subsequently shares with local governments and residents.

This ‘fairness’ inevitably leads to realistic and effective solutions.

By utilizing the university’s prepared research personnel and infrastructure to find solutions and connecting them to actual policies by local governments, the regional innovation platform advances to a more sophisticated stage.

Since 2017, Dong-Eui University has held 14 forums and conducted 8 research projects. The scale is planned to expand further.

To strengthen win-win cooperation with the local community, Dong-Eui University is promoting the establishment of a cooperative involving local small footwear manufacturers in collaboration with the Small Business Specialized Support Center (Director Mok Hye-eun).

They conceived a joint collaboration body to revitalize the handmade shoe street being developed by the local government through the cooperative and to open sales channels for small footwear manufacturers.

After signing an MOU with the responsible local government Busanjin-gu and the Korea Footwear and Leather Research Institute, the Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group has formed a cooperative network by continuously promoting linked projects such as producing promotional video content with local small manufacturers and delivering handmade shoe product sponsorships.

Once the cooperative establishment is concretized, it will utilize the footwear-related technology and networks of small manufacturers and support brand development, design development, and online marketing by leveraging Dong-Eui University’s human and material resources.

It seems natural that the local government opens product sales channels to further enhance the competitiveness of the local handmade shoe industry. The university-led cooperative establishment case by Dong-Eui University, which is creating a distinctive industry-academia cooperation model through the joint collaboration body, is expected to have various derivative effects.

Director Im Eem-geon of Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group.

Lee Im-geon, Director of the Dong-Eui University LINC+ Project Group, emphasized, “The core is to combine the university’s capabilities with the resources and community of the region to newly discover development platforms and create socio-economic values needed by the region.”

He added, “The LINC+ Project Group plans to find regional problems and realize activation strategies that can operate autonomous regional growth engines, thereby driving regional change and university development together in the mid- to long-term.”

“We are visualizing a more advanced industry-academia collaborative community network through a sustainable and mutually growing industry-academia operation system that improves the one-way industry-academia-government relationship,” he added.

Starting with the high value-added transformation of the southeastern region’s key industries, if linked projects with social economy enterprises also expand, attention is focused on whether the university will create an ideal model that simultaneously pursues the realization of the region’s economic and social values.

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