These vertical gardens are part of a global R&D project of Eureka. (Eureka's official website)

By Lee Jihae

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on June 22 said Korea was elected for a two-year term on the board of directors of Eureka, the world's largest research and development (R&D) group, at its general assembly in Brussels, Belgium.

The country is the first non-European state to serve on Eureka's board.

Founded in 1985, the group has 47 member states -- 41 from Europe and the remaining six from other regions like Korea.

It launches every year R&D tasks worth EUR 600 million to EUR 700 million (KRW 800 billion to KRW 1 trillion) and pursues joint projects.

In 2009, Korea joined Eureka as its first non-European associate member and has since provided KRW 210.8 billion in government funding for 216 tasks.

In 2018, Korea was promoted to a partner country and last year, it joined Canada as the  group's first full-fledged members outside of Europe. Korea is the only Asian member of Eureka.

"Technological cooperation with Europe is growingly crucial for solving global issues like carbon neutrality and raising competitiveness in cutting-edge technology," said Lee Minwoo, director general of the ministry's Industrial Technology Convergence Policy Bureau. "On the occasion of joining Eureka's board of directors, we plan to expand cooperation in industrial technology with Europe."

jihlee08@korea.kr