New facility to focus on bio-sustainability, green energy, advanced food, healthcare
Lotte Group and KAIST have jointly opened a new research and development center, bolstering their industry-to-academia ties while ramping up capabilities for securing next-generation technology.
According to officials on Sunday, leaders from the two sides including Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and KAIST President Bae Choong-sik attended the completion ceremony of the Lotte X KAIST R&D Center at the latter’s campus in Daejeon on Friday.
The new facility, at nearly 4,300 square meters of floor space over seven floors, was built with Lotte’s donation of 10 billion won ($7.45 million) and undisclosed funding from KAIST.
The R&D center will bring together KAIST’s research capabilities and Lotte’s field experiences to carry out basic studies and experiments, build prototypes and commercialize technologies while utilizing artificial intelligence throughout the research process, according to the two sides.
“I hope that the R&D center will become a foothold for industry-to-academia cooperation, which can create big possibilities beyond the boundaries of schools and companies,” said Shin.
“Lotte will remain a reliable partner for professors and students so that they do not fear failure but conduct research freely and keep challenging.”
The R&D center will focus on three main research areas: bio-sustainability that can replace the existing fossil fuel; carbon-neutral energy technologies needed for green hydrogen and renewable energy; and advanced food and healthcare for future society.
The partnership between Lotte and KAIST dates to 2012 when KAIST began offering master’s and doctoral degree programs for Lotte employees. The two sides also established the Lotte Chemical-KAIST Carbon Neutral Research Center in 2022 to secure key technologies and nurture professional talents.
“Today’s opening ceremony is not just completion of a building but a new beginning of cooperation,” said Bae.
“We will integrate KAIST’s research capabilities and Lotte’s industrial and business capabilities to connect ideas and technologies in laboratories to actual values in the workplace and build new growth engines for Korea as well as sustainable solutions for the future.”
By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)
