South Korea Became an International Partner of the National Technology Initiative's Contests
RVC and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in development and advancement of technology innovation. The agreement was signed on the margins of Russia Korea Business Forum in Moscow.
MOSCOW, June 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The key area of cooperation will be South Korea's active involvement in organization of the National Technology Initiative's (NTI) Winter City and First Element Technology Contests, which are getting launched this year by RVC, the Skolkovo Foundation, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).
Under the new agreement, RVC and KIAT will encourage Korean engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to participate in contest assignments to overcome international technology barriers. South Korean teams will have an opportunity to compete in creating a driverless car designed for safe navigation in a difficult weather conditions, as well as developing a highly efficient hydrogen fuel cell for vehicles and aircrafts.
"South Korea has made a commitment, through KIAT, to become the first international partner of NTI Technology Contests. This indicates that the challenges of overcoming technology barriers included in contest assignments are relevant not only to Russia, but also globally," said Alexander Povalko, CEO of RVC.
"Russia is extremely competitive in basic sciences such as physics and mathematics, and is in possession of original technology in advanced materials, biotech, and aviation. We hope to expand cooperation in the long term because both countries can jointly create new industries through mutual complementary cooperation utilizing Korea's enterprise innovation capability and high-tech industry technology," said Kim Hak-Do, President of KIAT.
National Technology Initiative's contests is a format of an open engineering contests, which is new for Russia, and is designed in order to find breaking solutions for the most difficult technological problems of global scale. The winner of the contests receives a significant money prize for delivering an understandable and scalable solution of the contests task to the expert jury and wide public. The contests are initiated by RVC, the Skolkovo Foundation, and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) in the framework of the National Technology Initiative. Its goal is to overcome significant technological barriers that stand in the way of the emergence of new products at the future NTI markets. The mechanics of the contests is developed in accordance with the best international technology contests practices: XPRIZE, DARPA Grand Challenge, etc. The functions of the NTI Technology contests are carried out by RVC. The acceptance of applications for the first contest is scheduled for this summer.
About RVC
RVC JSC is a government-controlled fund of funds, an institution to promote development of venture investment sector in the Russian Federation. The primary operating goals of RVC are stimulating the establishment of a domestic venture investment industry in Russia and performing the functions of the Projects Office for the National Technology Initiative (NTI). RVC has an authorized capital of more than RUB 30 billion. RVC is 100% owned by the Russian Federation through the Federal Agency for State Property Management of the Russian Federation (Rosimushchestvo). RVC has created 26 investment funds with the combined asset value of RUB 35.7 billion, with RUB 22.7 billion of the total controlled by RVC. RVC funds have approved RUB 18.2 billion of investments in as many as 223 innovation-focused companies.
About KIAT
The Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) is an institution for developing technology policy with the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. KIAT was established in 2009 according to the Law on Development of Industrial Technology as a result of merger of six public technology institutions. With its headquarters in Seoul, KIAT has an annual budget of approximately US$ 1.4 billion. The development institution comprises seven departments focused on advancement of industry, materials and components, international cooperation, commercialization of technology, support for regional industry and high-potential companies, as well as development of technology policy. As an authorized organization with the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, KIAT is promoting the advancement of Korean industrial technologies to the next level.
SOURCE RVC JSC
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