December 1 & 2, 2008
Radisson SAS Royal Hotel - Brussels

The 2nd edition of the “EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” again a considerable success!

The “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” was successfully held last week on Dec. 1-2, 2008 at the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Brussels, Belgium. It was co-organised by the European Commission (EC) (Directorate-General Information Society and Media; DG INFSO) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) of the Republic of Korea (ROK) with the support of the COJAK FP7/ICT project. The “2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” was the first event of its kind ever organised in Europe and it attracted almost 170 delegates, including about 65 representatives from leading South Korean organisations active in the ICT area and almost 30 representatives of the European Commission (among them 7 Heads of Units).

It has been seen of strategic importance to the EC and MKE to have a follow-up event to the conference that successfully took place last June in Seoul, South Korea, and on the occasion of which several ICT research areas of mutual interest to Europe and Korea have been identified. The main objective of this 2nd Cooperation Forum was thus to further build upon the already reached achievements, the already established relations and to have the opportunity to even more precisely identify emerging EU-ROK collaborative projects on ICT research.

Held only two weeks after the launch of an important FP7 call for proposals related to the ICT theme (Call 4), this Forum particularly aimed at thoroughly discussing opportunities of strategic cooperation between the EU and the ROK in the perspective of the FP7/ICT Call 4. This is why the event structure included a number of parallel thematic sessions allowing participants to discuss potential cooperation in each thematic area. This is also the reason why ample time was left during the two days to facilitate networking between participants.

The 2-day event was structured into parallel thematic sessions, each of them devoted to a specific theme:

• Sustainable & Personalised Healthcare
• Future & Emerging Technology
• Future Internet
• Microsystems & Flexible Organic & Large Area Electronics
• Security & Trust in Networks and Services
• Networked Media Systems
• Embedded Systems Computing & Control
• Internet of Things
• ICT for Sustainable Growth
• Einfrastructures
• + A special emphasis on Digital Content & Gaming
• + An open thematic session

The cooperation forum was jointly opened by Maria Carbone (Deputy Head of Unit: A4, International Relations, DG INFSO, European Commission) and Yong-nam Jung (Director, Strategic Planning Division, Institute for Information Technology Advancement, IITA, ROK) both warmly welcomed the conference participants while emphasising in their respective speeches that it is indeed of mutual and strategic interest to further enhance cooperation between the EU and the ROK regarding ICT R&D and that today's "2nd EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research" represents a great opportunity that can greatly contribute to realisation of this ambitious aim. Mr Pierrick Fillon-Ashida (Policy Officer Korea Desk, International cooperation, DG INFSO, European Commission) was cordially invited to give an overview of S&T cooperation activities between Europe and South Korea. Co-chaired by Karine Valin (Coordinator of the COJAK FP7/ICT Project and Managing Director of Sigma Orionis, France) and Sang-kil Lee (International Cooperation Team Leader, IITA, ROK) this morning of the 1st conference day was rounded up by two keynote addresses from Jongwon Eun (Team Leader, ETRI, ROK) who focused on possible collaboration fields between the EU and the ROK in the ICT field (such as IT Convergence & Component, Radio & Boradcasting, Digital Home, Embedded Software or Intelligent Robot - just to mention few of them) and Hyokjae Choi (Deputy Director, Ministry of Knowldege Economy, ROK) who gave an indepth overview of Korea's development of IT industry and its evaluation of achievements, Changes in IT Industry and new challenges faced as well as the role of government and enterprises concluding with a mid to long-term outlook of Korea's IT industry.

The parallel sessions allowed participants to better understand the research status and perspectives on the different themes in Europe and in South Korea, and to more precisely evaluate the potential for future cooperation in each area, in particular under the European 7th Research Programme (FP7).

Part of the morning of the 2nd conference day was dedicated to FP7, more precisely its ICT theme, while the perspectives for 2009-2010 that it offers to interested parties from throughout the world has been presented by Eric Badiqué (Scientific Officer, Unit C2, DG INFSO, EC). The presentation devoted to practical aspects of how to build a FP7 proposal given by Tom McKinlay (Principal Administrator, DG INFSO, EC) has also attracted many event attendees.

The closing session, chaired by Alvis Ancans (Scientific Officer, Unit A4, DG INFSO, EC and also COJAK Project Officer) allowed to present overviews of the discussions and conclusions related to the parallel thematic sessions.

In a nutshell: the 2nd edition of the “EU-Korea Cooperation Forum on ICT Research” was again a considerable success. Thus, the way has been paved and it is indeed expected that a high number of cooperation projects will soon emerge between Europe and the Republic of South Korea on ICT research, especially in the perspective of the next FP7/ICT Call for Proposals #4.

---

Available documents
Event Agenda (with presentations as Acrobat files) / Session Conclusions (prepared by each session chairs) / Photo gallery / Attendee List / Statistics

Useful links
EC DG INFSO / MKE / FP7 / FP7 ICT Call 4 / COJAK FP7 Support Action

---

About the COJAK FP7/ICT Support Action
The COJAK FP7/ICT project is committed to provide free of charge support and guidance to all organisations willing to take part in joint EU-ROK collaborative projects on ICT research. Interested organisations should contact the EuroSouthKorea-ICT Team.