National Pukyong University Announces Large-Scale 'Moonshot' Project Investing Heavily in Busan-Style RISE Response

The First Signal of Full-Scale RISE Response Among Busan Universities: 'Moonshot' Project
11 Billion KRW Invested in Unicorn Company Fostering and Regional Issue-Solving Initiatives

National Pukyong National University (President Bae Sang-hoon) is launching a large-scale ‘PKNU Moonshot’ project to proactively respond to the Regional Innovation-Centered University Support System (RISE) initiative, which is set to be fully implemented this year.

Recently, as Busan City established the basic plan for the Busan-type RISE project and presented a blueprint for building a co-growth system between universities and the region, PKNU took the lead as the first among universities in the Busan area to proactively move forward.

PKNU is promoting two ‘Moonshot’ projects: one in the new industry sector focusing on ‘Nurturing Unicorn Companies in Busan’s Five Future New Industry Fields,’ and the other in the humanities and social sciences sector focusing on ‘Solving Regional Issues Based on Humanities and Social Science Convergence Research.’ The term ‘Moonshot’ refers to an innovative challenge akin to launching a lunar probe.

PKNU has allocated up to 1.1 billion KRW in project funds. It is unprecedented both regionally and nationally for a university to support a single project with over 1 billion KRW from its own budget. Since his inauguration last month, President Bae Sang-hoon has positioned this project as a core university initiative and promised full support.

First, in the new industry sector, the project aims to foster unicorn companies related to Busan’s five future new industry fields: power semiconductors, secondary batteries, future aviation, digital finance, and digital healthcare, by supporting joint research between companies and the university.

A unicorn company refers to a startup with a corporate value exceeding 1 trillion KRW. The plan is to commercialize innovative new industry technologies developed in globally competitive university laboratories and nurture world-class unicorn companies locally.

To this end, research groups for each of the five fields will be selected to receive a total of 900 million KRW over 1 to 2 years for joint technology development research expenses. The university will lead the establishment of an industry-academia cooperation system with companies in their growth phase and pursue co-growth.

Research groups composed of five or more professors from two or more departments will conduct research together with participating companies, jointly filing patents and transferring technologies. To ensure companies settle and develop in the region, the plan includes hosting company-affiliated research institutes on campus, relocating the headquarters of participating companies to campus, and incorporating them as subsidiaries of the university’s technology holding company. For this purpose, the Yongdang Campus, being developed as an urban high-tech industrial complex under the Campus Innovation Park project, will be opened to participating companies.

Second, in the humanities and social sciences sector, the university will leverage its capabilities to address various regional issues. Up to 10 groups will be selected and provided with 20 million KRW in total, with 2 million KRW each for joint convergence research in humanities, social sciences, and arts, to enhance research capacity and contribute to regional development.

It is highly unusual for research funding exceeding 10 million KRW to be provided in the humanities and social sciences sector. This demonstrates the university’s commitment to not neglect traditional humanities alongside new industries for regional co-growth.

PKNU plans to officially launch the project starting in March, following demand surveys and opinion gathering.

President Bae Sang-hoon stated, “This project is expected to become a representative case that not only intensively nurtures companies driving regional future growth using advanced technologies possessed by the university but also solves various regional issues based on humanities, achieving balanced academic development.” He added, “As a national university, we will do our best to grow together with regional industry-academia cooperation entities.”

National Pukyong University Daeyeon Campus.

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