Korea and Israel will open the ‘Korea-Israel Light House Program’ and jointly invest $5.3 billion in technology development in the field of robots. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a ‘Korea-Israel Lighthouse Program Launch Conference’ with the Israel Innovation Agency in Tel Aviv, Israel on the 12th and announced such a technology cooperation program. 

The light house program is a new mid- to large-scale joint research and development (R&D) cooperation project, as the joint technology development fund invested annually by the two countries increased from $2 million to $4 million, respectively, due to the revision of the "Korea-Israel Industrial Technology Cooperation Treaty" last year. am. The two countries plan to expand cooperation to strategic industries such as autonomous vehicles and hydrogen, starting with the robot field. 

Existing R&D cooperation programs between the two countries are supported by matching companies from both countries on a one-to-one basis, but the Light House program is operated as a “2+2 industry-university-research cooperation project” in which one company and one university or research institute are required to participate in each country. The amount of support has increased from the previous maximum of $2 million to a maximum of $5.3 billion. “The lighthouse program will serve as an opportunity to illuminate new industrial technology routes in both countries and accelerate innovation, as is the purpose of the program,” said Roh Geon-ki, director of industrial technology convergence policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. said. 

Source: Yang Cheol-min from Sedaily (April 12, 2022)