Korea EUREKA Day proved to be a success for European and Korean entrepreneurs

Over 200 participants representing national governments, funding agencies, industry and academia attended the Korea EUREKA Day event, which took place in Brussels this year. The event was organised by the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and theEUREKA Hungarian Chairmanship. Under the theme of ‘Bringing Korean and European Innovation Together’ the conference held on 21 March aimed to provide a platform where technology and innovation experts from Europe and Korea can share project concepts for the generation of new proposals and establish new connections. Ministerial representatives from Korea and European countries, the European Commission, members of the EUREKA Network discussed on how to further the Korean-European cooperation. Furthermore, the match-making sessions provided the opportunity for companies to identify potential partners. 

As a side event to the Korea EUREKA Day 2012, a training on EUREKA programmes was given to a delegation of 50 entrepreneurs from South Korea. The training, entitled “How to present a successful project proposal”, included presentations by representatives of National funding agencies and the European Commission part of the EUREKA Network and other EUREKA staff and project participants. Our partner in the event, the European Patent Office also offered its insights on the functioning of the Intellectual Property Rights system in Europe.

Some of the participants had the occasion to develop business contacts during the training, which will lead to new international EUREKA projects in the near future. So far 25 collaborative projects between European and Korean innovators have been completed within the frame of EUREKA programmes.