SUR & BF Won First Runner-up at

2020 Best Cases of Industry-University Cooperation

The Sogang University Research & Business Development Foundation (SUR & BF), led by Chief Oh Kyung Whan, won the First Runner-up, Ministry of Education Prize in the '2020 Best Cases of Industry-University Cooperation Competition,' hosted by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and sponsored by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), in the field of Technological Cooperation. Sogang won the Second Runner-up Prize in the same field in 2016, and, this time, won its highest-level award in four years, signifying Sogang's capability as the leading institute for industry-university cooperation.

The best case recognized in this competition was for the 'Show Me the Tech' program, which has been operated for three years (since 2018) as part of 'Beyond Research Innovation & Development for Good Enterprises+ (BRIDGE+),' sponsored by the MOE and the NRF.

‘Show Me the Tech’ is a program to discover a corporation's final-stage demand through field investigations. To hear the company's actual 'voice,' the researcher makes personal visits, discovers the corporation's final demand, matches it with the university's technology, and offers regular support while the process of developing commercialization, transfer of technology, and actual commercialization are all finalized. These efforts have achieved performances as follows:

(△ Corporate demands discovered: 20 cases; △ Support for developing commercialization: 15 cases; △ Technological integration-convergence matched between universities: 9 cases; △ Support for manufacturing technological video SMK: 6 cases; △ Technological transfer contracts signed: 11 cases (Technology Fee: KRW 620 million)

Chief Oh Kyung Whan of the Research & Business Development Foundation said, "Winning this Grand Prize is evidence that Sogang University has been recognized as a leading institute in industry-university cooperation, technological transfer, and commercialization. Taking this as momentum, we will do our best to provide various programs and support for connecting more industries with university technologies and to generate high synergetic effects and technological commercialization.“

This competition was held as part of the '2020 Industry-University Cooperation EXPO,' which is aimed at discovering universities and research institutes from among all those across the country that are making endeavors toward utilizing industry-university cooperation and to inspire pride while spreading excellent cases. The awards ceremony was held on Wednesday, December 2, at the Industry-University Cooperation EXPO in COEX, with the award winners in attendance and livestreamed on by YouTube.