Pukyong National University

PKNU becomes 'Korean Unicorn Campus'
Selected as the government funded project for the first time this year, the "Industry-University-Institute Collaboration Complex Project."

△ View of Yongdang Campus of Pukyong National University, selected for the "Industry-University-Institute Complex Development Project." by the Ministry of Education. Beyond the Yongdang campus surrounded by forest, Busan North harbor lay spread out nicely.

Pukyong National University will become a 'Korean Unicorn Campus' as it was selected as a government financial support project for the 'Industry-University-Institute Collaboration Complex Project'.

The Ministry of Education and Korea Industrial Technology Association (Koita) announced on May 1 that they selected two universities, namely Pukyong National University and Hanyang University (ERICA), for the "Industry-University-Institute Collaboration Complex Project' to Build Innovation Center for Industry-University-Institute Cooperation.

The project will be implemented this year to create a Korean Unicorn campus, in which the government raises future unicorn companies with innovative ideas. 23 universities across the country applied for this project and showed a high competition rate of 11:1.

The model of this project is the 'URP, Deam Noh, Young-cheol,' which was the first project of the local government in Busan Metropolitan City for four years starting from 2015 and started at the Yongdang Campus of Pukyong National University for the first time. The URP project, which opened the whole 330000㎡ Yongdang campus to the company, has been developed into the financial support project of the government this time. The expansion of the URP project into the national project has brought the nation's attention to the different challenges of Pukyong National University and Busan City.

Pukyong National University originally transferred the engineering college from Yongdang campus to Daeyeon campus for the URP project, and then created a 'Dragon Valley', a platform specializing in industry-academia collaboration and entrepreneurship, by attracting companies here. Currently, there are 1,700 employees in 341 companies.

The selection of the Ministry of Education will give wings to 'Dragon Valley' this time. Pukyong National University plans to make the 'Dragon Valley' as the base for Industrial-University-Institute cooperation in Northeast Asia and 'Korean Unicorn Campus' together with Busan City by investing 11.2 billion KRW including government subsidies for the next five years. It is a strategy to develop small but strong global enterprises through the development of key technologies through attracting companies with good prospects and research institutes, as well as through the provision of professional equipment, networking among companies, financial and marketing, and design.

For this, Pukyong National University has developed the following technologies: △D-Space 8000, which allocates spaces according to the growth rate, size, and type of business; △CSI 100, which builds common equipment required from the idea development of a company to the pilot product production stage, △3CR & BD, in which professors participate in technology development as well as commercialization, △promote the 'Dragon Valley 4 major brands' business, such as Plug-In 100, to strengthen direct skinning with companies and students.

Seo Yong-cheol, the director of Industry-Academy Cooperation Foundation at Pukyong National University (Photo on the right), said, "We will do the best to become a sender and receiver of knowledge so that universities can become a base for R&D and industrial development in the region by raising global small strong enterprises that will grow into future unicorn enterprises."

▷ What does it mean to the Dragon Valley of Pukyong National University?
The word "dragon valley" at Pukyong National University has a willingness to build a global company like Silicon Valley in the United States. It is based on the local name "Yongdang-dong" where the Yongdang campus of Pukyong University is located, and it is like a dragon flying in the sky, it means a nesting place for big corporations. The 'Dragon Valley' was named after Pukyong National University was selected as the university of Busan's university research park project (URP: University Research Park) after the keen competition between the universities in Busan in 2015.

▷ Pukyong National University, how did it win URP project in 2015?
At that time, the URP project was a large policy to cooperate with local universities in Busan city and Busan Technopark (Foundation) for the creative economy ecological system of the government and the local economy to advance, and also because of the symbolism that the selected university is the 'think tank leading the development of Busan city', the participation competition of universities in Busan was hot.
Pukyong National University was selected as the top prize in 13 evaluation items including evaluation of evaluation committee and deliberation committee for local universities applying for URP project, △development conditions of research complex space, △R&D development and support, so win the project.
 
▷ Pukyong National University Proudly ranked top!
With the full support of Busan City, Pukyong University will invest 10 billion KRW (5 billion KRW in subsidy and 5 billion KRW in private contribution) from 2015 to 2018 as it was selected for the URP project, and has been carrying out a project to build a 'World Class Global Techno Complex' in the Yongdang Campus in Yongdang-dong, Nam-gu.
Since then, Pukyong National University has pursued an ambitious strategy to promote the entire Yongdang campus as a "Dragon Valley" that will serve as a base for industry-academia collaboration, business start-up, high-tech research and development, and creative talent cultivation.

▷ What are the charms of Dragon Valley?
The Yongdang campus, which became a dragon valley, was designated as a Busan R&D Special Zone (2012), which is exempted from corporation tax and income tax, and designated as the only new technology entrepreneurial area in Yeongnam(2014). It has attracted not only national projects such as university projects but also Busan Business Support Center and offshore plant engineering companies. In the process, more than 200 companies moved into the Yongdang campus in 2015, and they were attracted by the local industrial cluster, which is unprecedented in urban areas.

▷ Pukyong that leads change ... "Pride and reward"
Professor Noh Eun-cheol (Electrical Engineering Dept., left photo), who was the head of the university-industry cooperation team at Pukyong National University in 2015 and the URP general manager said, "When I first started the URP business, I was determined to dedicate everything to build up the 'Dragon Valley' in the world.", and he added, "In the future, I hope that our university will not be influenced by the tide of the times but to lead the change with the leading challenge of 'Dragon Valley', I will add strength even a little bit.<Pukyong Today>