Republic of Korea (South Korea)

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General developmentsSouth Korea's economic rise and the rapid development of its R&D landscape in recent years have led to an increase in the country's importance as a partner for scientific and technological cooperation and thus also in the number of German stakeholders involved. South Korea now spends over 3.5 % of its GDP on education and research, giving it a leading position internationally, significantly above the OECD average. Korea's R&D is mainly application-oriented and has reached a very high level in areas such as information and communication technologies.

Efforts to internationalize the R&D landscape are an important element of Korea's innovation policy and are being strongly promoted by the ministries responsible. In addition to expanding existing bilateral collaborations with strategically important partners, these activities include increased participation in multilateral institutions and research projects.

Despite all the national efforts made so far, there are not enough innovative SMEs to act as suppliers to large companies in South Korea. This offers opportunities for German companies, particularly in high-technology sectors such as electronics, automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, medical technology, biotechnology and environmental technology. Research cooperation can sometimes facilitate market entry for German providers operating in these sectors.

South Korea's special interest in cooperation with Germany is reflected by the fact that the Korean Institute of Science and Technology has been running KIST-Europe, a research institute in Germany and under German law, since 1996. Relative to population size, Koreans make up the largest group of Asian students in Germany (approximately 5,000).

Political framework for scientific and technological cooperation

Bilateral cooperation is based on a Scientific and Technological Cooperation (STC) agreement that was concluded between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of the Republic of Korea on 11 April 1986 (BGBl 1986 II 928). Since then, numerous individual agreements have been signed between universities, research institutions and research funding institutions in both countries.

The "Korean-German Cooperation Committee on Science & Industrial Technology" has been responsible for coordinating bilateral cooperation in education and research at intergovernmental level since December 2007. This committee emerged from two successful former committees that were run by research organizations. Its aim is to continue to intensify cooperation activities. On the German side, it is headed by the BMBF, with the participation of numerous research and intermediary organizations. On the Korean side, responsibility alternates between the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE).
There have already been three successful bilateral KGCCSIT meetings. As a result of these meetings, a KGCCSIT steering committee has been established in order to prepare the topics for future cooperation more effectively.

Funding for collaborations with South Korea

Bilateral R&D cooperation with South Korea covers a broad range of different topics based on the initiatives of individual institutes of German research organizations and universities as well as on mobility and project funding under various BMBF programmes. Via the International Bureau, the BMBF has been providing increased funding to individual mobility measures in order to intensify cooperation with South Korea in the areas of research and technology. This includes special mobility programmes for the preparation of collaborations that are in line with the current priorities of the bilateral cooperation committee and are also geared towards the strategic priorities of the national funding projects, taking into account potential synergies between these priorities.

Bilateral R&D cooperation covers a wide range of topics, focusing on the life sciences (biotechnology, regenerative medicine, neurosciences etc.), basic research in the field of physics, materials research, marine technology, polar research, marine research, climate research, microsystems technology and new energy sources/environmental technologies.

The BMBF's initiative "Germany and Korea: Partners in Research and Development" has led to a significant intensification of bilateral cooperation. The initiative was part of the "Germany - Land of Ideas" campaign, in which South Korea was selected as a target country thanks to its position as a renowned high technology country in Asia. In addition to the numerous events and activities of the general campaign, the initiative was supported in particular by research organizations and various networks of excellence originally funded by the BMBF.

ADeKo - The German-Korean Alumni Network

Founded in May 2008, AdeKo is an association of Korean graduates who studied in Germany. It is the world's first concept of this kind to be realized successfully. The association and its 6,000 members have shown great commitment in promoting friendly relations between Germany and Korea in all areas.

ADeKo sees itself as a driver of Korea's further development. ADeKo is made up of 49 sub-associations which have elected a board consisting of 10 high-ranking Korean personalities. The board also includes the Korean and the German Ambassador as ex officio Members. Expert committees support the board in its work. In addition to its office in Seoul, ADeKo has contact points in various Korean cities and, starting this year, an official base in Germany.

ADeKo regularly organizes alumni events in different formats. Its larger events, such as the annual interdisciplinary conference or the annual workshops in Germany, are successful in attracting both a Korean and German public. Furthermore, as far as the German side is concerned, ADeKo is the only alumni network that officially takes part in bilateral negotiations on scientific and technological cooperation (STC).  ADeKo received start-up funding from the BMBF. In future, it will receive project-based support from the BMBF and from the Korean Ministries MEST and MKE. Moreover, ADeKo has already found its own sponsors and generated its first independent funds.