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Busan to Become a “Power City” for Power Semiconductors… RISE Field Campus Opens at iQ Lab

내용

□ Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced today that it will hold an opening ceremony for the Busan-style RISE Power Semiconductor Industry Field Campus (hereinafter “Field Campus”) at 14:30 on December 30 at the headquarters of iQ Lab Co., Ltd., located in Gijang-gun.

□ The event will proceed in the following order:
▲ a progress report on the implementation of Busan’s RISE open university–industry collaboration model (Open-UIC) for the power semiconductor industry, followed by
▲ the opening ceremony of the Field Campus, and
▲ the launch of the establishment council to strengthen industry–academia–research collaboration.

○ Attendees are expected to include representatives and officials from Busan Metropolitan City, the Busan RISE Institute, Busan Techno Park, the Korea Power Device Industry Association and its member companies, local universities in Busan, and other related organizations and businesses.

□ Through today’s opening ceremony, the City will officially launch the Field Campus as a flagship model of Busan’s RISE open university–industry collaboration model (Open-UIC), and will accelerate its full-scale push toward becoming a “power city” for power semiconductors—leading the future of Korea’s (K)-semiconductor industry.

□ Starting in January 2026, the Field Campus will be operated as a year-round hub for industry–academia collaboration, serving as an education and hands-on training venue for students majoring in semiconductor-related fields, a workplace training center, a site for joint industry–academia research, and a platform for exchanges and networking.

○ To ensure stable implementation, at today’s opening ceremony the City will launch the Busan-style Open University–Industry Collaboration Model (Open-UIC) Establishment Council, involving Busan Metropolitan City, the Busan RISE Institute, Busan Techno Park, the Korea Power Device Industry Association, its 114 member companies, and 20 universities in the Busan area. Through this council, the City will build an integrated operating system in which local government, industry, academia, and research entities cooperate closely.

○ This approach goes beyond the one-to-one, individual industry–academia partnerships traditionally formed between universities and companies. Reflecting the SME-centered industrial structure of Busan, the City will strengthen collaboration with the Korea Power Device Industry Association and establish a comprehensive and sustainable partnership framework.

□ With iQ Lab providing space free of charge, the iQ Lab Field Campus has opened as the nation’s first permanent campus located inside a private company.

○ iQ Lab will provide an entire floor of its headquarters building—660 m² in size—free of charge to local universities. The company has also built facilities, including a second-floor clean room (Clean room), so that students can observe and participate in hands-on training. This will enable the private company to operate as a permanent campus for the local community.

□ The City expects that the opening of the Field Campus will further expand the leading RISE model in which local governments develop industrial complexes and attract investment, companies relocate to the region and hire local talent, and this, in turn, leads to talent development, employment, and long-term settlement in the region.

○ Following its relocation to Busan this year, iQ Lab newly hired 10 employees, and plans to hire an additional 30 employees in the first half of next year.

□ With iQ Lab’s relocation as a catalyst, Busan has become the first region in Korea to secure technologies for mass production of 8-inch silicon carbide (SiC) wafers and for back-end processing of power modules, based on the Power Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment Specialized Complex established in September. Going forward, the City will strengthen industry–academia–research collaboration so that Busan can evolve into a forward base that encompasses not only power semiconductor manufacturing and production, but also demonstration, verification, and commercialization.

○ Through Busan’s RISE initiative, the City plans to invest KRW 4.7 billion annually in professional workforce development and joint industry–academia projects, and to actively support semiconductor talent development and R&D projects at universities totaling KRW 59.9 billion, by linking them to the needs of local industries.

○ In addition, the City will actively support semiconductor-related industry–academia–research collaboration in Busan by expanding information sharing among faculty and researchers in semiconductor-related university departments and by promoting the joint use of semiconductor-related foundational infrastructure owned by universities.

□ Seong Heui-yeob, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation, said, “Busan’s RISE open university–industry collaboration model (Open-UIC) is a leading model of the RISE system in which universities and regions grow together. It is expected to become a forward base for nurturing key talent and advancing technology localization that will drive not only Busan but also Korea’s (K)-semiconductor industry.”