EVENT / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Norway-Korea Research Networking Event
- Research networking event held 6–7 November 2023 at Yonsei University, Seoul. The Norwegian Embassy in Seoul, Ministry of Education and Research, and Research Council of Norway hosted the inaugural event. It was connected to Norway’s Panorama Strategy, which in 2021 identified South Korea as a priority country for science and academic collaboration.
- Goals were to create a shared networking forum, present research projects, identify cooperation in research/innovation/higher education, encourage student mobility, and raise awareness of grants and exchange funding. Topics were offshore wind, circular bioeconomy, and quantum computing. Audience: researchers from universities, research institutes, and businesses interested in Norway–Korea collaboration.
- 6 Nov programme (GMT+09:00): sign-in 09:30; opening 10:00, including remarks from Ambassador Anne Kari Hansen Ovind and Yonsei Engineering Faculty, plus a keynote; offshore wind 11:00–12:30; lunch; circular bioeconomy 13:30–15:30; quantum computing 15:30–17:00; dinner/networking 17:00–23:00. Offshore presentations addressed multidisciplinary approaches, fixed/floating wind project challenges, installation vessels, ocean modelling/digital twins, fisheries and environmental sustainability, and support structures, followed by a collaboration/education panel. Circular sessions covered one health/circular economy, Korean organic-waste management, and marine degradation of biodegradable plastics. Quantum topics included trapped-ion computing, quantum matter, and quantum software engineering.
- 7 Nov: registration 09:30; research funding programmes 10:00–11:15 with the Research Council of Norway, National Research Foundation, KIAT, KETEP, and Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills; project showcase 11:15–12:00 on digital technology for sustainable built environments and Yonsei’s greenhouse-gas reduction training programme; lunch; parallel workshops 13:00–15:00 across the three research areas; outcomes 15:00; wrap-up 15:30. Breakouts covered quantum hardware, error correction, reservoir computing and hardware/software interplay; offshore-wind collaboration, education, and R&D/commercial projects; circularity, NIBIO presentations on climate-adjusted green/digital farming and organic-waste bioenergy, capacity building, the 9R concept, and future R&D/industry involvement.
- Partners: South Korea’s Ministry of Education, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Seoul, and Research Council of Norway. Contact: Roger Martinsen (roger.martinsen@innovasjonnorge.no). Related industries: education, offshore wind, circular economy, and energy.