[Anchor]

Chungnam National University, along with Pusan National University and Chonnam National University, has been selected as a regional flagship university to lead the government's initiative to foster "ten Seoul National University-caliber universities." The university will receive massive financial support amounting to 350 billion won over the next five years.

This is a report by Lee Jae-gon from TJB.

[Reporter]

Chungnam National University has been chosen as one of the national flagship universities to spearhead the government's key university policy aimed at creating "ten Seoul National University-caliber universities."

Among the nine flagship national universities nationwide, the three selected for priority support this year are Chungnam National University, Pusan National University, and Chonnam National University.

Over the next five years, each university will receive 70 billion won annually, totaling 350 billion won in support.

Chungnam National University received high marks for its capabilities in science, technology, and research-centered capacities.

[Han Sung-sook / Prime Minister: "Please take on the responsible role of fostering core talent to drive regional growth engines and industries, and serving as a anchor for building a regional industrial ecosystem."]

Considering that Chungnam National University's annual net operating budget is 260 billion won, this is the largest scale of support in the university's history.

At the core of the initiative are the signature colleges, the "Nexus College of Science and Technology" and the "Convergence Research Institute."

Chungnam National University plans to establish a new college combining the fields of semiconductors, displays, batteries, biotechnology, and mobility, while building a talent-nurturing system with an enrollment capacity of 300 undergraduate and 150 graduate students.

[Kim Jung-kyum / President of Chungnam National University: "We intend to use these funds so that our students, even while located in the region, do not experience limitations in their educational, research, and industry-academia collaboration experiences."]

Ties with regional innovation industries will also be strengthened.

By establishing an industry-academia-research cooperation model involving KAIST, government-funded research institutes, and corporations, on-site researchers will participate as professors, and students will receive know-how from world-class researchers and corporate experts.

In addition, the university plans to build cooperation systems with about 120 high-tech companies, including SK Hynix, Samsung Display, and Celltrion, to lead directly to employment and startups.

For Chungnam National University to revitalize the region and transcend the limitations of provincial universities to be reborn as a national research-centric university, everything now depends on massive structural reform.

(Video Journalist: Lee Yong-joo (TJB))

Lee Jae-gon, TJB