As its official unified launch approaches, Kangwon National University (KNU)<\/strong> is leaping forward as an ‘Industry-Academia Cooperation Hub’<\/strong> by transforming its entire campus network into a platform for regional startups and industry collaboration. Based on its selection for the Glocal University 30<\/strong> project and the ‘One Gangwon State, One National University’<\/strong> framework, the university has launched a full-scale strategy to foster regional ‘Unicorn’ companies by building a wide-area innovation ecosystem that encompasses education, research, startups, and industry-academia cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Existing infrastructure\u2014including the KNU Startup & Innovation Institute<\/strong>, the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, the Campus Innovative Park<\/strong>, and the Gangwon Chuncheon Gangso (Inno-Town) Research and Development Special Zone\u2014form the central axis of this movement. A virtuous cycle of entrepreneurship, stretching from initial idea discovery to Technology Commercialization<\/strong>, is rapidly taking root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KNU is strengthening practical startup education by operating the ‘Startup Minerva School,’<\/strong> which reflects the industrial characteristics of its four campuses in Chuncheon, Samcheok, Gangneung, and Wonju. Students experience the entire process of identifying local issues on-site and materializing them into business items, effectively narrowing the gap between education and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To date, 9,401 students<\/strong> have participated in 286 startup-related courses, while 2,495 students<\/strong> have joined extracurricular programs such as startup clubs and competitions. Additionally, through the ‘Idea Lab’<\/strong>\u2014a problem-solving industry-academic cooperation model\u2014the university has successfully resolved technical difficulties for 10 regional companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By promoting the Local-RISE<\/strong> strategy, KNU is fostering each campus as a specialized hub linked to regional strategic industries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The university plans to build a strategic industrial cluster across the entire Gangwon region by forming networks between these four campuses and local industries, governments, and research institutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the reinforcement of startup support, KNU has produced 35 student startups<\/strong> and 17 faculty startups<\/strong>. In 2024 alone, 20 student startups were established, signaling a significant rise in entrepreneurial enthusiasm. These companies have proven their competitiveness by securing 14 government support projects and winning 46 external awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Representative success stories include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both companies grew through the university’s technical expertise, incubation systems, and the infrastructure support of the Campus Innovative Park, serving as prime examples of regional economic revitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting next year, KNU plans to further broaden its foundation for industry-academia cooperation by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Choi Yong-seok<\/strong>, Director of the KNU Startup & Innovation Institute, stated, “Universities must go beyond education and research to become innovation leaders that create economic value alongside regional industries.” He added that KNU aims to complete an ecosystem that continuously produces ‘pre-unicorn’ companies by leveraging the wide-area network of the unified university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #KangwonNationalUniversity #UnifiedKNU #IndustryAcademiaHub #StartupMinervaSchool #LocalRISE #StudentStartup #TechnologyCommercialization #GangwonStartupEcosystem<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Based on the Glocal University 30 and ‘One Gangwon State, One National University’ System… Presenting the ‘Gangwon Model’ through 4-Campus Specialization and Startup Achievements As its official unified launch approaches, Kangwon National University (KNU) is leaping forward as an ‘Industry-Academia Cooperation Hub’ by transforming its entire campus network into a platform for regional startups and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotlightuniv.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Startup Minerva School’ and Practical Entrepreneurship Education<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Local-RISE Strategy: 4 Campuses as Specialized Bases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Proving Competitiveness through Student and Faculty Startups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Future Plans: Expanding the Global and Policy Network<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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