Lotte Partners with KAIST... Donates 14 Billion KRW for Research Center Construction

Aerial view of Lotte-KAIST R&D Center.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Lotte announced on the 29th that it will donate 14 billion KRW to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a domestic institution for nurturing scientific talent. The donation will be used to build the ‘Lotte-KAIST Research and Development (R&D) Center’ and the ‘Lotte-KAIST Design Center,’ with completion targeted for the second half of 2025.

According to Lotte, both centers will be established as research hubs that break down the boundaries between industry and academia to enable collaboration. They will conduct research on the commercialization of future technologies based on KAIST’s global capabilities and cutting-edge infrastructure, and support projects to discover ideas for new growth engines in the industrial sector.

Ten affiliates of Lotte are participating in this donation, including Lotte Holdings, Lotte Chemical, Lotte Fine Chemical, Lotte Shopping, Korea Seven, Lotte Himart, Lotte Members, Lotte GFR, Lotte Confectionery, and Lotte Chilsung Beverage, all of which are engaged in businesses related to the main research fields of the two centers.

The R&D Center, operated by the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, will be established as an industry-academia ultra-boundary research cluster to address climate change and achieve carbon neutrality. Comprehensive research will be conducted in three main themes: ▲bio sustainability ▲carbon-neutral materials and energy ▲nutrition and healthcare, covering system metabolic engineering, biofuels and plastics, green hydrogen, renewable energy, and battery fields. The center will support all processes from research to experimentation, prototype production, and commercialization. Research outcomes will be commercialized in collaboration with Lotte.

The Design Center will be operated by the Department of Industrial Design. It will house a Social Contribution Design Lab, an AI and Data-based Design Lab, a Metaverse Design Lab, and a User Experience (UX) and Service Design Lab. Each lab will conduct research on ▲zero-waste design and design thinking ▲data-driven user experience design ▲human-centered AI interaction technology and service development ▲future products and services integrating virtual and real environments.

Additionally, a testbed open to campus and local community members will be created. The derived research outcomes will be implemented as innovative services for future distribution and used as a space to be validated by actual consumers.

Meanwhile, last year, Lotte strengthened its design capabilities by recruiting Professor Bae Sang-min of KAIST as the head of the Lotte Holdings Design Management Center. Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin also visited KAIST’s Daejeon main campus in February upon the invitation of KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung.

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