DGIST Partners With France's ENPC to Train Deep Tech Founders

DAEGU — DGIST is accelerating efforts to train technology management specialists who can turn laboratory science into startups and commercial businesses, and then take them into global markets. After establishing its Graduate School of Technology Innovation Management (GSTIM) last year, the institute has joined hands with ENPC, one of France's leading engineering and management schools, to cooperate on deep tech entrepreneurship, education and research. The aim is to develop professionals who can lead the commercialization of research results while creating a channel that connects technology companies and deep tech startups in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province to Europe's innovation ecosystem.

GSTIM recently signed a memorandum of understanding with ENPC Business School, the management school of ENPC, in Paris for cooperation in education and research, DGIST said on the 22nd.

DGIST established GSTIM last year to develop specialists who combine technology and management expertise. The goal is to train people who understand both technology and markets so that technologies created in laboratories do not stop at papers and patents but lead to startups and commercialization.

ENPC is one of France's grandes écoles, the country's elite higher education institutions, and ENPC Business School specializes in education that links technology, management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The core of the agreement is to combine DGIST's science and technology research capabilities with ENPC's global management and innovation education capabilities to build a model for international cooperation in technology commercialization and deep tech entrepreneurship. The plan goes beyond simple student exchanges to build an industry-academia network that connects the entire process through which laboratory technology moves from startup formation to global markets.

The two institutions agreed to pursue exchanges of information in management and science and technology, exchanges of students, researchers, faculty and staff, executive education programs for deep tech startups, and joint research for industrial cooperation between Korea and France.

They will also jointly develop a deep tech entrepreneurship education program combining DGIST's science, technology and laboratory startup capabilities with ENPC's global management education network. The two sides plan to expand the scope of cooperation to joint research involving companies and research institutions in Korea and France.

DGIST expects the cooperation to serve as a foundation for technology companies and deep tech startups in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province to connect with Europe's innovation ecosystem using France as a base.

"This cooperation is significant in that it expands internationally the Lab-to-Market model of talent development that DGIST is pursuing, which connects excellent laboratory technologies to actual startups and businesses," GSTIM Dean Joo Woo-jin said. "We need to build an ecosystem that connects research results at regional universities to startups and corporate growth, and then links them back to global markets."

The cooperation also coincides with GSTIM's recruitment of students for the 2027 academic year, scheduled for this fall. Established last year, GSTIM focuses on developing specialists who understand both technology and management by incorporating artificial intelligence into management education. It operates master's programs in business administration and engineering, teaching the capabilities needed to establish research results in the market and commercialize them.

The school is also expanding opportunities for students to experience education at overseas universities and global programs while enrolled, rather than limiting them to domestic education. Based on the cooperation with ENPC Business School, GSTIM plans to increase student exchanges and joint education programs and build an environment where students can interact with students, faculty and business people in France and elsewhere in Europe.

"I want to build a graduate school where talented people from the region can experience world-class education and networks without leaving Daegu," Joo said. "Through exchanges with overseas universities and global programs, we will actively provide opportunities to develop an international perspective."

Joo also stressed that a shortage of technology management talent is one reason Korea's research and development investment, among the highest in the world, has not translated into industrial results as much as expected. "We will develop specialists who can lead the management of technology-based companies and secure competitiveness in global markets," he said.