Ajou News

NEW Chem-Bio Medicine Industrial-Academic Collaboration Center and ICC Now Open

  • 2020-12-28
  • 2710


Ajou University’s LINC+ Project Group has opened the Chem-Bio Medicine (CBM) Industrial-Academic Collaboration Center and the Industrial Cooperation Center (ICC). The CBM Education Research Organization, leading both centers, consists of researchers drawn from the departments of molecular science and engineering, chemistry, biotechnology, and pharmacy at the University’s graduate school. By opening the two centers, the organization plans to lead industrial-academic research collaboration on related subjects.


The ceremony celebrating the opening of the centers took place at Yeonam Hall on November 5. The ceremony also accompanied the R&D Technology Matching Fair. In awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire event took on a hybrid form, featuring both online and offline elements.


The ceremony was attended by key University officials, including Oh Yeong-tae, Vice President for Industry-Academia Cooperation (photo, upper left corner) and Kim Yong-seong, Professor of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology Engineering and the director of the CBM Industrial-Academic Collaboration Center (photo, upper right corner). The ceremony was also attended by notable guests from outside the University, including Pan Hyeon-gi, head of the Business Diffusion Strategy Division at the Korea Intellectual Property Strategy Agency, and Lee Jeong-woo, leader of the Technology Marketization Division at the Commercializations Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes. Park Hyung-ju, President of Ajou University, sent a video message in recognition of the occasion.


The two new centers will involve 48 organizations and companies, including the CBM Education Research Organization and the Gyeonggi Biotechnology Center. The participating organizations will work together to promote local industries by facilitating and organizing original/intermediary research as well as marketization efforts.


The CBM Industrial Collaboration Center was ranked first among biotechnology, health and innovative new drug project groups in a four-stage BK21 evaluation.


Center administrator Prof. Kim Yong-seong remarked: “The CBM Industrial Collaboration Center is already making notable progress with technology transfers. At least twelve of the center’s participating faculty members have successfully developed and transferred technologies. We are now doing due diligence and field work to identify and solve technological issues facing actual industries today.”


CBM Industrial Collaboration Center members have together generated KRW 42 billion from 37 contracts with 27 businesses over the last five years, of which 14 were valued at KRW 100 million or more, attesting to the high-value-added nature of the technologies transferred.


In his congratulatory message, University President Park reminded the audience of Ajou’s motto, “A University that changes the world with connected intelligence,” expressing the expectation of seeing “industrial-academic research collaboration for the development of commercially viable technologies contribute to the growth of both the University and businesses.”


Vice President for Industry-Academia Cooperation Oh stated in his address, “The CBM Industrial-Academic Collaboration Center is providing education and research on technologies of all stages, including both basic and commercial, that combine molecular science, bioscience, applied chemistry, and pharmacy. The LINC+ Project intends to use the ICC to accelerate academic-industrial collaboration in R&D, education and training in the four key areas of collaboration emphasized by the University—biotechnology and healthcare; artificial intelligence and big data; new and renewable energy; and smart mobility.”


Ajou University operates ICCs to organize collaboration with businesses in workforce development and research in the four key areas chosen based on the University’s core capabilities—biotechnology and healthcare, smart mobility, new and renewable energy, and artificial intelligence and big data. ICCs are channels through which the University undertakes various projects of collaboration and social work.