KORANET - Korean Scientific Cooperation Network with the European Research Area

KORANET aims at enhancing the research partnership between the countries of the European Research Area and Korea. This will be achieved with the help of several analytical exercises (mappings, foresight studies and other reports), the establishment of a Pilot Funding Scheme and a Joint Funding Programme as well as several joint activities (conferences, workshops and brokerage events). The preparation of a project website, a newsletter and an extensive database with information on relevant research institutions and existing R&D cooperation activities is also planned.

 

Partners

Consortium partners of the project are:

• Germany: Internationales Büro des BMBF, DLR (also project coordinator)
• Austria: Zentrum für soziale Innovation, ZSI 
• Germany: VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, VDI/VDE-IT 
• United Kingdom: British Council, BC
• Finland: Technical Research Center of Finland, VTT
• Italy: Veneto Innovazione S.p.A, VenInn 
• France: Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, CNRS
• Poland: Polish Academy of Science, PAN 
• Hungary: Hungarian Korean Technical Cooperation Center, HKTCC 
• Turkey: Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, TÜBITAK 
• Korea: National Research Foundation of Korea, NRF

The Steering Committee consists of:

• Germany: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF
• Korea: Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, MEST 
• Austria: Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung, BMWF
• Hungary: National Innovation Office, NIH 
• France: Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, MAEE 

Observers of the network are:

• United Kingdom: Royal Society, RS
• United Kingdom: British Academy, BA 
• Norway: Research Council of Norway, RCN
• France: OSEO
• Sweden: Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA
• Korea: Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology, KIAT
• Poland: National Centre for Research and Development, NCBiR

Project aims

The main aims of KORANET are:

• Improving information exchange and cooperation between Korean and European research communities
• Exchanging best practices as regards the planning and implementation of S&T policies and international S&T cooperation
• Promoting the cooperation between Korean and European research communities,
• Analysing and further developing of existing cooperation instruments,
• Coordinating bilateral approaches of EU Member States/Associated Countries and Korea
• Specifying priority thematic areas for cooperation
• Establishing an appropriate framework for strategic cooperation
• Developing a one-stop agency for Korean S&T interests
• Learning from completed and ongoing ERA-NETs (good practice)
• Developing and implementing a full concept for a joint funding programme in a thematic area (based on a pilot joint funding scheme)
• Increasing Korean participation in the EU Research Framework Programme

Project structure

The work of KORANET is divided into five work packages; all of them run through the whole four-year duration of the project. Each work package has a work package leader who is responsible for the implementation of the work package’s tasks:

• WP 1: Analyses, monitoring and review activities (WP leader: National Research Foundation of Korea and British Council)
• WP 2: Strategy and foresight (WP leader: Zentrum für soziale Innovation)
• WP 3: Development of a pilot joint funding scheme to be implemented by interested programme owners or managers in a thematic area still to be defined (WP leader: Centre National de Recherche Scientifique)
• WP 4: Joint activities for researchers and science stakeholder from the EU and Korea (e.g. trainings, conferences, workshops, etc.) (WP leader: Technical Research Center of Finland)
• WP 5: Organisation and management (WP leader: Internationales Büro des BMBF)