The purpose for this meeting was a workshop, in which AIF and KIAT published a joint call to deepen their further cooperation. Participants of the workshop were companies from Germany and South-Korea.
Prof. Gries and Hyun-Young Lee from the Institute for Textile Technology (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University attended the meeting to get to know cooperation partners, with whom they can implement future projects between Germany and Korea. Frank Leisten of AGIT, Aachen, Germany and Dr. Seung Mok Yoo, Director of European Joint Research and Development office of Korea Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH) accompanied them. AGIT is the business development agency of Aachen and KITECH does the industrial promotion of the Korean industry.
The AIF together with a variety of partners from industry, science and research form a corporation of different research associations to develop different stages of innovation. In this process small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with its innovative strength, are the central focus of the AIFs efforts.
As a public institution, the KIAT promotes in Korea technological policies, the structure of technological infrastructure as well as the exchange and market spread of industrial technologies.
Opportunities for German SMEs
According to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, there is still a lack of innovative SMEs as suppliers, necessary for the economic development, especially for large companies, in South Korea. This offers opportunities for German companies, particularly in technology-intensive sectors such as electronics, automobile manufacture, shipbuilding, medical technology, biotechnology and environmental technology. A research cooperation will simplify the market entry for German companies in these sectors. “We have very good contacts to the automotive and medical field, therefore we expect to increase the chances for German companies in South Korea and to support our Korean partners”, summarizes Prof. Gries, “There is a great market for innovative technical textiles from which we should use and benefit from together.”
Moreover, on the morning of March 27, 2014, German Minister of Economy, Sigmar Gabriel, and the Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Dr. Yoon Sang-jick, signed a cooperative agreement to strengthen the collaboration within the framework of the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM).
Further Information about the ITA on www.ita.rwth-aachen.de
