President Yoon’s official visit to the Czech Republic in September 2024 has deepened the existing strategic partnership between the two countries, signing 56 MOUs in diverse sectors. Starting with nuclear energy partnerships in which 13 MOUs were signed, it includes political policy consultations, defense, and advanced fields like scientific research and battery technologies.

On Friday, 20th of September, Sang-ook Park, the Korean Senior Secretary to the President  for Science and Technology, and Marek Ženíšek, the Czech Minister for Science and Research, held a meeting at the office of the government of the Czech Republic in Prague to discuss expanding cooperation in the areas of Science, Technology and ICT. One of the key agenda was to deepen existing cooperation areas such as biotechnology and chemistry, and to expand the cooperation to new areas such as quantum, space, nuclear power and digital.

In particular, the Korean government plans to invest 37 million USD over the next 10 years to promote joint research and development between the two countries. The spending will go to joint research and development projects in the fields of such as biotech, chemicals and materials, aerospace, nuclear energy, AI, 5G, digital and quantum technology. The Czech government is expected to correspond with Korea’s investment.

According to Park, they will revive the Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee (JSTCC) which has stopped since 2015. The 5th JSTCC will take place on 2nd of October, and it will continue every two years. They also intend to build and expand S&T human resource network through training programs and science talent exchange programs.

Finally, they expressed their hope that excellent researchers from the Czech Republic and South Korea can form a team and apply to Horizon Europe together as South Korea is joining the programme as an associated country starting from 2025.