KIRD held an award ceremony for 2022 National R&D Real Challenge Program

KIRD held the “2022 National R&D Real Challenge Program” award ceremony in October.

National R&D Real Challenge is a program sponsored by KIRD for reinforcing the research capabilities of graduates in science and engineering fields. The program launched back in 2018 and has been running for the last five years thanks to the active participation of university research teams across the country.

This year, in total, 16 research teams were selected to be rewarded with five months of training, mentoring, and research funds. The participants were asked to carry out a team project to draft a research proposal, including justification of research, research evaluation standards, execution steps, and expected outcomes for the National Research Foundation of Korea’s “Scientific Challenge Convergence Research and Development Program.”

In particular, KIRD used the Metaverse platform “Gather Town” to provide its three rounds of virtual classes on R&D planning, training, and mentoring.

KIRD selected the top three teams and granted awards and prizes. The grand prize was claimed by Seoul National University’s AFBL for its research on “Development of 3D co-cultured hydrogel scaffold for treatment of intractable cardiovascular disease.” Top prize went to Pohang University of Science and Technology’s No-vation for “Nitric-oxide-modulating and sequential drug-releasing microneedle patches for treating chronic diabetes mellitus.” The Cancer Bioinformatics team from Pohang University of Science and Technology was rewarded with an excellence prize for its research on “Development of prediction system for patient immunotherapy responses by utilizing inferred mutated protein structures and biological networks.”

“I have been a member of the research team so far. However, through this opportunity, I was able to experience and learn how real research directors work by designing and contemplating the research subject and methods,” said Dong Woo Kim, the research director of AFBL. He added that "I am more than willing to promote and recommend this Real Challenge Program to the peers at my graduate school.”

Jong Chan Jang from the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology and the mentor of both the grand prize winner and the top prize winner said that the “National R&D Real Challenge Program let our future scientists and engineers realize their innovation DNA and served as a springboard for further developing the research capacity of Korea.” He added that “I hope that this experience will build a foundation for graduates in science and engineering fields to take a leap to be the leader of an innovative R&D culture.”

The program allows participating graduates to directly experience the research planning and evaluation process so that they can equip themselves with the qualifications required on site. KIRD plans to spare no efforts in providing support for the growth of preliminary scientists so that they can grow into valuable talents in the science and technology arenas.