Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin (신동빈) has been recognised for contributions to science and technology-based industrial innovation and social value creation. Lotte said on Wednesday that Shin received an honorary doctorate in business administration at KAIST's main campus in Daejeon.

KAIST said it awarded the degree because Shin has made ESG a core pillar of group management and practised responsible management. It particularly cited his efforts to turn science and technology-based industrial transformation and social value creation into systems and execution.

Shin has contributed to building science and technology research infrastructure and establishing a foundation for convergence research through industry-academia cooperation with KAIST. Lotte Group in 2022 contributed a 14 billion won development fund to KAIST and is building the Lotte-KAIST R&D Center and the Lotte-KAIST Design Center. They are scheduled to be completed in May and September, respectively.

The Lotte-KAIST R&D Center is an industry-academia, cross-boundary research cluster aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. Multidisciplinary convergence research will be conducted with specialists from various fields collaborating on topics including bio sustainability and carbon-neutral materials and energy. The Lotte-KAIST Design Center will carry out comprehensive research including social contribution design, AI and data-based design, and user-based design.

Cooperation between Lotte and KAIST has been recognised as an action-oriented industry-academia cooperation model linking the building of research infrastructure with the setting of mid- to long-term joint research agendas and the dissemination of research results. It is expected to contribute to building a virtuous cycle that strengthens KAIST's research competitiveness and spreads the social value of research outcomes.

Shin said, "The convergence of technology and management through industry-academia cooperation has become a survival strategy, no longer a choice." He added, "As innovation partners designing the future together, Lotte and KAIST hope our partnership will lead to innovation that changes the world for the better."