Korea and Netherlands Hold First Science and Technology Joint Committee Meeting to Discuss AI Safety and Quantum Cooperation

TechFlow reported on Nov. 6, citing Yonhap News Agency, that South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Nov. 6 it held the first Korea-Netherlands Science and Technology Joint Committee meeting with the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) at the Ministry of Science and ICT office building in Sejong City. The meeting was convened for the first time under the memorandum of understanding on research and science cooperation between Korea and the Netherlands signed in 2024. Both sides shared R&D investment priorities and key science and technology policies and discussed issues including global research security, AI safety policy and commercialization of research outcomes.

The National Research Foundation of Korea and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) agreed to design joint research models expected to generate synergies around cooperation areas of common interest to both countries and accordingly issued an open call for new topics under the Korea-Netherlands international joint research program. The National Research Foundation of Korea also proposed cooperation in the quantum field, including quantum chip development based on the semiconductor capabilities of both countries, experimental measurement and standards cooperation in quantum technologies to ensure international equivalence, linking Korea's quantum cluster with the Dutch quantum collaboration foundation 'Delta NL' to integrate quantum ecosystems, and strengthening export control cooperation on quantum technologies.

The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology proposed synthetic biology cooperation centered on infrastructure such as the national biofoundry. Hwang Sung-hoon (transliterated), international cooperation official at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said that the two countries had previously built a cooperation foundation centered on semiconductors and will now expand the scope of cooperation to cutting-edge technology fields such as quantum and synthetic biology, and will actively support substantive research cooperation between the two countries going forward.

Source: TechFlow