Universities in Seoul are forming committees to focus on the Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) projects, which will be organized by the city government.
On Monday, Sogang University announced the launch of its RISE committee, appointing Jun Sung-youl, Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, as its head.
The committee will work on strategies to strengthen the university's partnerships with local industries, develop programs to cultivate creative and interdisciplinary talent and enhance global industry-academia collaborations. Through the government's RISE project, local governments of 17 cities and provinces are given the authority to allocate part of the Ministry of Education's budget to drive regional innovation. For this year, a budget of 2.001 trillion won ($1.38 billion) has been allocated for RISE. With Seoul also participating in the project, the local government plans to use its budget for five fields: enhancing global competitiveness of Seoul universities, creating programs that develop its strategic industries, regional growth, lifelong education and student startups. The Seoul RISE Center will be in charge of selecting universities that will be participating in each project throughout 2025 to 2029. Korea University also launched its committee on Feb. 5, with the group eyeing R&D-related projects. The university mentioned it has expertise in partnerships with research institutions through the Hongreung Innotown, a bio and medical cluster working on various research projects with the university and its hospital. Hanyang University, which has also established its RISE committee, aims to focus on generating jobs within Seoul's key strategic industries.
As an engineering-focused university, it seeks to build partnerships with global companies and other academic institutions to nurture talent in advanced industries.
"Our three main initiatives are creating more global industry-academia partnerships, attracting overseas talent in high-tech and emerging industries and strengthening overall industry-academia partnerships," said Lee Ki-jeong, president of Hanyang University. "We plan to outline a pioneering model for Seoul's RISE project through university-led innovation".
