International Cooperations

In the core quantum programs, there are many projects in which researchers of foreign countries are working together. As the total amount of government R&D budget grows, the amount of international collaborative research projects increases as well. The ratio of the international cooperation amount against domestic-only amount has been going up, but the actual portion is yet to grow, only 10% as of 2022. The government intends to increase the portion of international cooperation to a meaningful level in a few years.

Two major core programs encourage the international collaboration: International Cooperation for Quantum Science and Technology (InCoQ) and Quantum Science and Technology talent Buildup (QTalent).

International Cooperation for Quantum Science and Technology (InCoQ)

The InCoQ program supports a large-scale, unilateral collaboration in all areas of quantum science and technology. As of Dec 2022, seven joint research projects are selected and 3 more will come during 2023.

Quantum Science and Technology Talent Buildup (QTalent)

In the QTalent program, there are small-amount research projects for 2~3 years encouraging exchange of students and professors. The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) of United States is a partner agency in a sub-program since 2019, with a bi-lateral supporting method (in which each agency gives grants to researchers from their own country but with the same proposals from the team). There is also another sub-program with uni-lateral support where Korean researchers are to find partners abroad but the funding is only from Korean government.

In the NRF of Korea, the Directorate of International Affair is responsible for the collaboration effort in scientific research with other countries. They support the international cooperation of researchers by signing MoUs for science and technology cooperation with various countries and creating small-scale mutually supported projects. The cooperation takes place both by exchanging researchers or by doing joint research.