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Bodyfriend Invests KRW 10 Billion for Collaboration with KIST (2017.12.23)
- Date : 2018-01-19
- Views : 5755
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International Cooperation Team
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Bodyfriend Invests KRW 10 Billion for Collaboration with KIST
On December 22, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and Bodyfriend signed an R&D cooperation agreement for establishing a healthcare platform centered on medical massage chairs. As a result of the agreement, Bodyfriend promised to donate KRW 10 billion in research funding over the next five years (KRW 2 billion per year).
Bodyfriend, Korea’s famous massage chair company, will use its partnership with KIST to obtain new core technologies and expand into the healthcare arena.
KIST and Bodyfriend’s short-term goal is to standardize the manufacturing of massage chairs by implementing KIST’s cutting-edge research into such fields as robotics, augmented/virtual reality, mechanics, sensor technologies, biomedical engineering, and brain science.
In addition to the endowment, Bodyfriend will install its own on-site laboratory at KIST. Such collaboration is based on the concept of “Open Innovation,” which requires that participants share technologies and patent information with each other, and is expected to serve as a benchmark for R&D cooperation between SMEs and government-funded research institutes.