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Four Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Institutes are intensively driving forward new collaborations with Korean partners at one and the same time. As part of the pilot project "Research Marketing South Korea" initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), knowledge exchange between the two countries has been successfully institutionalised.

Establishing and intensifying contacts

The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) organised many workshops in Korea. This made it possible to extend and consolidate the existing contacts and to establish new ones, such as with industrial companies like Modacom, SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics. The signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MoU) with the National Information Society Agency (NIA), which, inter alia, provides for the exchange of scientists and researchers as well as collaborative research projects, is also seen as an important success.

Creating ties – this is the idea to which the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) has committed itself. The partners of the IESE include the Pohang University of Technology and Science (POSTECH), the Sogang University in Seoul, and the Pohang Steel Company (POSCO). Annual workshops with POSTECH, a newly-founded network of experts as well as a major industrial project with POSCO are plans of high promise. The Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP) was also pleased with the numerous new contacts it had made – and the great interest shown by the Koreans in the field of construction and environment, in particular the core areas of noise control, architectural acoustics, and acoustic materials. The IBP signed an MoU with the Dankook University.

Expanding partnerships

The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research (IFAM) showed itself to be particularly ambitious. Working together with the Chonnam National University and the Hanyang University, above all, interesting collaborative research projects have developed, while contact has also been made with Hyundai-Kia-Motors. Much as for the IFAM, the representatives of all the institutes have found the achieved results to be very positive. For the future, they plan to continue to expand the partnerships over the long term.