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2026 Busan-Type RISE Partnership Forum to Be Held: Busan RISE to Leap Forward as a Leading Model for Future National Balanced Development Beyond the Region

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it will host the “2026 Busan-Type RISE (Regional Innovation System & Education) Partnership Forum” from today (Feb. 4) through Feb. 5 at Signiel Busan in Haeundae-gu, to share the first-year achievements of Busan-Type RISE and present new policy directions and a vision for 2026.

Busan-Type RISE aims to promote university specialization by closely linking universities with regional industries. Since May last year, 21 universities have been implementing 122 projects in earnest, investing KRW 134.1 billion.

Around 300 people will attend the forum, including Mayor Park Heong-joon; Chair Kim Heon-young of the Central RISE Committee; Co-chair Choi Jae-weon of the Busan RISE Committee (President of Pusan National University); presidents of regional universities; company representatives; heads of regional innovation institutions; and a student supporters group.

On the first day, the opening ceremony will proceed in the following order: an achievements report, case presentations, an industry-academia-research dialogue, and the declaration of the NEXT RISE vision. During the “case presentations,” students and businesspeople who directly participated in RISE will share real changes on the ground, including entrepreneurship, employment, and technology development. During the “industry-academia-research dialogue,” Mayor Park Heong-joon and representatives from various sectors will meet to share the local community’s expectations and vision for RISE. In addition, an expert forum on ways to advance Busan-Type RISE is also prepared.

On the second day, the program will continue with: presentations of first-year RISE achievements by each university; briefings on linkage and cooperation projects by each regional innovation institution; and meetings of the Busan RISE subcommittee. As a related side event, the Busan Content Competition (hosted by Dongseo University) will also take place, where university students from Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongsangnam-do gather to create and present content—such as games, webtoons, tourism, and design—under the theme of “Busan.”

As Busan Metropolitan City has promoted industry-academia-research collaboration as a core priority, it has driven structural innovation that connects education, industry, and settlement—going beyond simple project outputs—even within the short period of eight months since the launch of RISE.

In talent innovation, Busan broke down the boundary between workplaces and classrooms and trained about 25,000 RISE talents annually based on corporate demand. In particular, the Field Campus opened within the Gijang Semiconductor Materials, Parts, and Equipment Complex was introduced as the nation’s first innovative model where education, industry, employment, and settlement are realized at the actual site.

In industrial innovation, regional universities established a standing cooperation system with 2,125 companies and are collaborating across diverse areas such as technology development and joint research. Through this process, four companies won CES Innovation Awards, demonstrating that the initiative is functioning as a growth platform for local businesses.

In regional innovation, strengthened settlement foundations—through measures such as introducing a region-specific visa (150 people) and a pilot program for a wide-area visa—opened the era of 22,000 international students.

In strengthening the competitiveness of regional universities, Busan became the only region in the nation to be selected as a Glocal University for three consecutive years, earning recognition for its regional innovation capacity. Pusan National University also renewed its highest-ever ranking in the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings and placed first among national universities for three consecutive years. This year, admission competition rates at regional universities also rose steeply to an average of over 46%.

Meanwhile, based on the successful establishment of Busan-Type RISE, Busan Metropolitan City will proactively respond to the central government’s key tasks for 2026, including “Creating 10 Seoul National Universities” and the “Ultra-wide-area RISE policy.”

Busan will expand a consortium-based shared university model centered on hub national universities, and will focus on role-sharing and specialization by each university. Busan-Type RISE is promoting specialization by assigning roles as follows: research-centered, education-centered, and vocational and lifelong-education-centered.

For the “ultra-wide-area RISE projects,” for which a government call is expected in the second half of this year, Busan plans to concretize a balanced development model that responds to the capital region based on the Busan–Ulsan–Gyeongsangnam-do cooperation framework. In addition, Busan signed an MOU among the Busan–Ulsan–Gyeongsangnam-do RISE Centers last December and has been conducting working-level consultations. In February, it plans to launch an Ultra-wide-area RISE University Council to activate a full-scale response system.

Mayor Park Heong-joon said, “In the second year, I believe this will be an important period in which each attempt and achievement will connect more broadly and deepen on the foundation built last year,” adding, “I hope Busan’s universities will pursue autonomous innovation based on their unique characteristics and strengths, while also actively engaging in flexible cooperation that connects and expands one another’s capabilities when needed.”

He continued, “Expectations are high for the regional innovation of RISE to lead to talent development and settlement in the region, and in 2026, Busan RISE will build on today’s achievements to prepare as a leading model for future national balanced development beyond regional innovation.”