Where Is the Campus for the Upcoming Urban High-Tech Industrial Complex?

2021 Campus Innovation Park Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs) announced on the 17th that it will recruit universities to participate in the '2021 Campus Innovation Park Contest Project' to create a regional innovation ecosystem centered on universities, together with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Minister Byeon Chang-heum) and the Ministry of Education (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hae).

The Campus Innovation Park is a joint project of three ministries that develops idle university land into urban high-tech industrial complexes, focusing on constructing corporate tenant spaces, government industry-academia-research cooperation, and corporate capacity-building projects to foster universities as innovation growth hubs. Since the announcement of the Campus Innovation Park development plan in 2019, three pilot projects?Kangwon National University, Hannam University, and Hanyang University ERICA have been selected, with designation as urban high-tech industrial complexes and construction underway.

To successfully promote the pilot projects and expand their outcomes, the government plans to select additional participating universities through this year’s contest project. Considering that securing sufficient land within urban universities is difficult, this contest also allows the use of existing buildings within universities. Efficient space utilization of the Campus Innovation Park is expected. Unlike the pilot projects, joint projects with other public institutions such as local public corporations, in addition to Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), will be possible to actively utilize regional expertise. Furthermore, to enhance project effectiveness, evaluation points for 'development feasibility as an industrial complex' linked to government policies and projects, and 'local governments’ administrative and financial support willingness' have been strengthened.

The application period for the contest, open from the 19th of this month to March 9th, targets universities and industrial universities. An evaluation committee composed of private experts will select the final two universities through written evaluation, on-site inspection, and comprehensive evaluation according to evaluation criteria. Selected universities will receive national funding for part of the construction costs of the urban high-tech industrial complex and the 'Industry-Academia-Research Innovation Hub' space used for corporate tenants. Additionally, support plans for industry-academia-research cooperation and corporate capacity building will be prepared and provided. The final selection will be made at the end of March.

A government official stated, "All three existing pilot projects are progressing smoothly, and the Campus Innovation Park is establishing itself as a regional innovation space," adding, "We plan to actively support the creation of innovation ecosystems centered on universities throughout various regions in the future."

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