South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT held a meeting in Seoul on Jan. 29 for domestic researchers taking part in Horizon Europe.

South Korea joined Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation programme, as an associate country last year, the first Asian country to do so. This allows domestic researchers to participate in projects on equal terms with EU researchers and secure research funding.

The meeting reviewed the experiences of researchers from six of a total of seven projects that took part in last year's call for proposals and were confirmed for selection, as well as detailed project content. It also discussed ways to promote domestic researchers' participation in Horizon Europe.

In the food and agriculture area, lead researchers from 2 of 3 projects attended the meeting. One project is led by the team of In-bok Lee (이인복), a professor at Seoul National University, and involves research to develop and optimise sustainable energy management for a rooftop greenhouse, a building-integrated controlled environment agriculture system. The project totals 60 million euros, or about 10.3 billion won.

Another project involves developing technologies needed to achieve zero pollution by reducing contamination emissions in food and beverage industrial processes. The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology is participating in the 6 million euro project.

In the standards area, the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science is taking part in 4 projects run as part of the European Partnership for Metrology. It is joining a 6.1 million euro project, or about 10.5 billion won, aimed at developing measurement standards in areas including electronic components and 6G communications, infectious disease diagnosis and thermodynamics.

Hwang Sung-hoon (황성훈), director-general for international cooperation at the ministry, said, "Horizon Europe is the world's largest multilateral research and innovation platform led by the EU." He added, "The government will continue to expand the participation of capable domestic researchers in Horizon Europe to generate outcomes in global joint research and strengthen national research and development capabilities."