Dr Daesub Yoon, Section Head of Mobility User Experience Research at ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), delivered a keynote address at the K-Water Institute, Daejeon, South Korea, on 12 March 2025. The session was devoted to sharing Korean experiences in EU-funded research with a particular focus on the AI-PRISM project, a Horizon Europe project committed to human-centered robotics in smart factories.
Dr Yoon began by introducing the Horizon Europe programme, highlighting how it seeks to combat climate change, foster sustainable development, and advance European competitiveness through collaborative international research. He outlined how non-EU participants, such as Korean organisations, can contribute meaningfully to such projects by introducing technological depth as well as regional expertise.
As a case study, he presented the AI-PRISM project (AI-Powered Human-Centred Robot Interactions for Smart Manufacturing). Just to highlight, for those who don’t know us. AI-PRISM, involving 25 partners from 12 countries, is developing intelligent and adaptive robotic systems capable of understanding and communicating effectively with human operators, enhancing safety, productivity, and trust in industrial environments.
ETRI and Korea’s Role in AI-PRISM
Dr Yoon detailed Korea’s role in the project, particularly through ETRI’s work in human monitoring systems and 3D pose estimation, essential components for enabling robots to interpret and respond to human movements accurately. He shared challenges faced in this area and how cross-border collaboration helps to advance innovation and overcome technical limitations.
He also outlined how the project is structured by formal communication channels such as Microsoft Teams, shared repositories, regular consortium meetings, and technical coordination calls. Meetings such as the Kick-off Meeting in Valencia and follow-up meetings in Spain and Italy have enabled intense international collaboration.
Fostering Participation and Knowledge Sharing
Apart from emphasizing AI-PRISM’s technical success, Dr Yoon stressed the importance of finding the right partners, securing agreements such as the Project Consortium Agreement (PCA), and managing intellectual property rights in EU-funded projects. He provided practical tips on networking through tools such as Ideal-ist, LinkedIn, and research collaboration meetings.
The presentation concluded with an overview of EUREKA programmes as another channel of Korea-Europe cooperation, contrasting it with Horizon Europe in structure, budget, and cooperation models.
A Platform for Sustainable Growth
Hosted by K-Water Institute, Korea’s leading non-profit research organization for green and water management technologies, the conference underscored the importance of global collaboration in addressing societal and environmental challenges. K-Water continues to be at the cutting edge of low-carbon and sustainable innovation, and events such as this confirm its commitment to international research collaboration.
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