South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is moving to recruit Korean scientists and engineers working in Europe.

The ministry said on July 20 it will hold a science and technology talent recruitment event, "Korea Awaits Your Brilliance", in Toulouse, France, on July 21 in connection with the 2026 Korea-Europe Conference on Science and Technology (EKC 2026).

The event is held in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and is co-hosted by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

Participants include five related organisations such as the National Research Foundation of Korea and the National Research Council of Science and Technology, three universities including KAIST, GIST and Pohang University of Science and Technology, 14 government-funded research institutes including the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and six companies including Samsung Electronics, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and POSCO Holdings.

The participating organisations will set up consultation booths and introduce hiring plans and researcher support systems. Participants can consult with organisation representatives based on their research fields and career stages and explore opportunities for returning to South Korea, employment and joint research.

The ministry has introduced researcher support policies and domestic organisations' research and hiring information to overseas Korean scientists and engineers at major research and innovation hubs in the United States since October last year. It plans to expand its talent recruitment drive to Europe through this event.

It will also begin a pilot operation of an online platform to promote overseas science and technology talent recruitment from July 21. The platform was created to reflect overseas researchers' views that hiring information at domestic universities, government-funded research institutes and companies, as well as government research support programmes and visa and settlement support information, are dispersed by institution.

The platform provides research and hiring information from domestic industry, academia and research organisations and information on government talent recruitment programmes. It also supports features such as a trial function for a research collaboration network data visualisation service. The ministry plans to expand the information and functions provided by reflecting user feedback during the pilot operation.

Lee Jun-bae (이준배), director general for future talent policy at the ministry, said, "We hope this event will inform Korean scientists and engineers working in Europe of various research opportunities and serve as an opportunity to cooperate with domestic industry, academia and research organisations." He said, "We will strengthen research support and talent recruitment policies so that outstanding researchers can demonstrate their capabilities and grow in the Republic of Korea."