Ministry of Trade Industry and Resources

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) held a roundtable to promote industry–academia collaboration at Incheon Global Campus (IGC) and hosted the IGC Navigator Day 2026 on July 30, 2026, in Seoul. The event drew around 50 participants, including representatives from the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA), the industry-academic cooperation foundations of IGC’s five foreign universities, the Incheon Global Campus Foundation, and the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT), as well as experts from industry, academia, and research institutions.

IGC is a shared campus for foreign universities, developed in Songdo, Incheon, since 2009 to establish an education hub in Northeast Asia. It is now home to five institutions: Stony Brook University and the Fashion Institute of Technology at SUNY Korea, George Mason University Korea, Ghent University Global Campus, and the University of Utah Asia Campus.

MOTIR has worked to develop IGC into a global cluster connecting industry, academia, and research institutions. A September 2020 amendment to the Industrial Education Enhancement and Industry–Academia–Research Cooperation Promotion Act allowed foreign universities to establish and operate industry-academic cooperation foundations in Korea. All five foreign universities at IGC established foundations in December 2021.

The event allowed the foundations to share their achievements and challenges and discuss IGC’s future development. It also aimed to link Korean industries with talented individuals and academic achievements cultivated through global universities’ expertise, while strengthening domestic and international networks across industry, academia, and research institutions.

Key programs included a keynote address by Professor Lee Kyoung-jun of Kyung Hee University titled “Turning Research into Value in the Age of AI Agents,” followed by a presentation on the Korean government’s R&D policy direction and a networking session among IGC universities.

MOTIR expects the event to deepen cooperation on technology and human resources between foreign universities in Korea’s free economic zones and Korean companies. By developing industry–academia–research clusters, the ministry also aims to stimulate foreign investment, attract global companies, and thereby strengthen Korea’s competitiveness.

Noting that Incheon Global Campus, Korea’s first shared campus for foreign universities, has established itself as a model success story, Director General Je Kyung Hee of the Free Economic Zone Planning Office expressed hope that it would become a leading innovation hub in Korea—a center of global technological innovation that attracts world-leading companies and drives global R&D collaboration.