■ The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) announced that its official mascot "Nulp" received the special award in the public character institutional sector at the 11th Korea Toy Awards ceremony held on the 17th in Seoul's COEX. The Korea Toy Awards is the first domestic toy award established to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic toy industry and to discover and promote creative character content. This special award winner, "Nulp," symbolizes curiosity and the spirit of inquiry, and was selected after about six months of idea proposals from all employees, first and second rounds of evaluation, and procedures for gathering opinions from creators and the public.
■ Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) announced that it held a joint workshop with the Fraunhofer Institute for ICT on the 16th to discuss composite technology cooperation methods. Around 100 representatives from major domestic manufacturing companies in the automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries attended the event, which aimed to provide insights into the development process of composites from research to industrial applications. UNIST President Jong-rae Park and Fraunhofer ICT Director Frank Henning held discussions and negotiated the establishment of partnerships to integrate Korea's achievements in basic sciences with Germany's applied technologies.
■ The University of Science and Technology (UST) hosted the '2025 UST-SOKENDAI Joint Seminar' on the 17th in collaboration with SOKENDAI, Japan's National Institute for Research. They shared insights and the latest research being conducted at the national research institutes of both countries. The seminar resumed after being suspended for over 6 years due to COVID-19 in 2019, focusing on the theme of 'life sciences', and was held at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) School. Both schools plan to enhance continuous and practical cooperation through future school participation seminars in research fields, as well as sharing and discussing each other's institutional operation experiences, including educational systems and academic operations.
■ The National Academy of Engineering of Korea (NAEK) will hold the 280th NAEK Forum on the 21st at the L Tower in Yangjaedong, Seoul, themed "Energy Transition: What is our choice for national survival and competitiveness?" This forum is designed to deeply discuss national strategies for securing energy security and industrial competitiveness amid the escalating geopolitical conflicts due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Middle East conflicts, and U.S.-China trade tensions, as well as the rising power demand driven by the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The keynote presentations will be given by Jin-ho Park, Vice President for Research at the College of Energy, and Jong-bae Park, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Konkuk University, followed by a panel session.