Korea becomes first Asian country to gain full membership of Eureka

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on June 22 that South Korea became the first Asian country to be granted full membership of the world's largest R&D platform Eureka at the 2022 general assembly held in Lisbon, Portugal.

With an amendment of articles, Eureka membership is now open to non-European nations, South Korea and Canada are the first nations to obtain community membership. South Korea is also the first Asian country to become full member.

South Korea has been actively participating as associate member of Eureka since 2009, and became a partner country in 2018. Having supported a total of 200 projects through 2009-2021, Korea has been holding Korea Eureka Day every year and was already heavily involved in the Eureka community, but now its status elevation has been officially recognized.

Full Eureka membership endows voting right in all Eureka's policy decision making processes, and approval authority in new programs, which opens access to supply chain advantage and more leverage in technology collaborations across carbon neutral, digital transition and other global agendas.

Hwang Soo-sung, Deputy Minister for MOTIE's Office of Industry and Enterprise Innovation, attended the Eureka general assembly and remarked that "ever since Korea and EU first established diplomatic relations in 1963, technology was always at the heart of cooperation," and added that he "looks forward to Korea-EU's further technology collaboration to become core partners in high-tech and supply chain."

MOTIE is also hosting Korea Eureka Day in Lisbon on June 22-23, where European cutting-edge technology firms and Korean companies meet to seek out new partnerships and synergies.

A total of 5,151 participants and 3,075 technology partnership connections stand in record from Korea Eureka Days, and this year's event saw approximately 560 persons attend thus far.