President Joachim Gauck of Germany is gracing the signing of MoU between ITA and KITECH
Prof. Thomas Gries, Head of ITA Institute for Textile Technology of RWTH Aachen University, Prof. Manfred Martin, RWTH Aachen University-Dean’s Delegate for Cooperation with Korea, SKKU-President Prof. Kyu Sang Chung and the President of KITECH, the Korean Institute of Industrial Technology met in South-Korea to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the German-Korean research proposal Dream2Lab2Fab
Germany’s Federal President Joachim Gauck has been gracing the signing of the MoU and praised the initiative as common economic approach during the 7th Korean-German Conference for Science and Innovation at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul.
Dream2Lab2Fab is developing necessary economic production technologies for smart textiles in cooperation with science and industry. Furthermore it combines the Korean and German knowledge of different sectors.
In 2016, two research facilities will be built simultaneously in Suwon, the capital of the province Gyeonggi-do, South-Korea, and in Aachen, Germany. The Gyeonggi-do Province Director and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) already confirmed a funding of EUR two million annually for the Korean site. The project funding will be provided for a period of five years. The Koreans plan a new building with estimated costs of around EUR 20 million in the long term. As interim solution, an additional site will be rented until the project is realised.
To implement Dream2Lab2Fab in Germany, also a new site will be constructed in Aachen. A first draft estimates costs equally around EUR 20 million.
Prof. Jarke, Head of Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Information Technology (FIT), and Prof. Prinz, the Deputy Head of Institute agreed to support ITA. Prof. Jarke also participated at MoU. He will also join the international mini symposium on October 14, 2015 in Korea.
Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) is a private research university and has a history of 600 years. It is ranking among Korea’s oldest universities. SKKU has an open mind for industry partnerships, for instance a long-time partner programme for brilliant students with the Samsung.
ITA’s core competence lays in textile related production technologies and development of high performance materials. With the Centre of High Performance Materials, ITA offers SMEs, small and medium enterprises direct access to scientific research, and particularly in the fields of high modulus fibres and composites. ITA provides research and development services and advanced training and creative workshops in cooperation with its partner company 3T TextilTechnologieTransfer GmbH. Furthermore, ITA graduates students in various textile related courses.