Sweden to reinforce its research contacts with South Korea

Published 21 April 2015

This week around 40 Swedish researchers are visiting Korea to meet Korean colleagues in a series of interdisciplinary round table discussions within the framework of the two-day Korea–Sweden Excellence seminar, to reinforce existing contacts and to develop new ones. Issues regarding creativity and innovation, environment and welfare are high on the agenda.

The seminar coincides with an official visit to South Korea of the speaker of the Swedish riksdag, Urban Ahlin, who will also introduce the seminar. Six researchers and project managers from Lund University are taking part. The delegation is headed by Dean Olov Sterner (20 and 21 April) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg (22 April).

"South Korea is a natural partner towork with on the development of education and research. Both Sweden and South Korea are export-dependent countries that have a major interest in, and need for, creativity, innovation and development within the environment and welfare. As a research-intensive university, Lund University has a lot to gain from developing collaborations and relationships with universities in South Korea”, said Deputy Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg.

The Swedish delegation also includes Lars Hultman, CEO of the Foundation for Strategic Research, SSF, and Andreas Göthenberg, CEO of the Foundation for the Internationalisation of Higher Education and Research, STINT.

Later this week, the Swedish researchers will also have the opportunity to meet leading Korean business executives to discuss how to promote creativity and innovation in higher education.

Korea is a society in which both the public sector and private individuals invest significant sums in education. The country is among those with the largest number of young people going on to study at university and Korea is preceded only by China and India when it comes to the number of students applying for studies abroad. Yet relatively few of these students come to Sweden, even though exchange activities between Swedish and Korean universities have grown rapidly in recent years. A number of events will therefore be organised during the week at which Korean students will tell other students about Swedish higher education and opportunities for study in Sweden.

Swedish Academic Collaboration Forum:

The Korea seminar is the first of five similar events. During the next academic year, comparable seminars will be held in Singapore, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Stockholm. Lund, Linköping, Uppsala and Stockholm universities, together with Chalmers University of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology, have joined forces in a common project. Together, the six universities represent the majority of Swedish university research. The project – the Swedish Academic Collaboration Forum – is supported by STINT.