South Korea to build 6 global tech cooperation centers: 5 in US universities, 1 in Germany

South Korea's industry minister announced on Friday that the country has chosen 6 overseas partner institutions to create global technology cooperation centers, which will be aimed at advancing research projects that are focused on core technologies.

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South Korea will build the new centers in partnership with US universities, including MIT, Yale University, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, and Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, while in Germany, South Korea chose Fraunhofer.

South Korea's Industry Minister, Ahn Duk-geun, said: "The six cooperation centers will provide all necessary support for global joint R&D projects. We plan to come up with a global open innovation support strategy to promote M&As, technology transfers, licensing and the recruitment of competitive experts".

The ministry said that the global industrial technology cooperation centers will act as channels for promoting joint research and development projects, while those projects will include semiconductors, biotechnology, robots, and artificial intelligence (AI).

South Korea plans to invest 684 billion won (around $505 million USD) in the global technology cooperation centers over the next 5 years, including 57.5 billion won (around $42.5 million) on launching 45 new projects to secure cutting-edge core technologies.