Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea General Manager Seok Soo-jin, right, poses with Kim Myeong-hwan, director of Next-Generation Battery Strategy Center at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, after signing a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on secondary battery research, at the company's office in Seoul's Gangnam District, Wednesday. Courtesy of Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea
Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea has renewed its partnership with a state-funded chemical research agency to cooperate on the key initiative of developing the country's secondary battery production capabilities.
General Manager Seok Soo-jin signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday with Kim Myeong-hwan, director of the Next-Generation Battery Strategy Center at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT). Under the deal, they agreed to exchange technologies, share laboratory tools and other analytic infrastructures, conduct joint research and provide training.
The Korean office of global scientific research giant Thermo Fisher Scientific has been working with the KRICT battery unit since 2024, jointly developing ways to improve the performance of secondary batteries. They had previously collaborated on a study of lithium-ion transport mechanisms within lithium metal battery cathodes.
The KRICT battery research center is part of K-Battery Innovation Consortium (K-BIC) for Korean researchers and companies. Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea, using K-BIC’s research infrastructure, will provide support for its analysis of secondary batteries, including studying battery life, energy density and material/cell degradation.
The company and KRICT battery center, under the Ministry of Science and ICT, have also agreed to discuss intellectual property for new findings and work on joint treatise.
"This partnership marks a meaningful milestone as it enables us to contribute to the research and industrial development of secondary batteries, one of the nation’s key strategic advanced industries, together with the KRICT battery team," Seok said.
"Thermo Fisher will continue to support domestic researchers in conducting more precise, data-driven studies and remain a trusted technology partner that advances Korea’s battery research ecosystem."
Kim noted that the partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific will be crucial for enhancing research capacity. "Through this collaboration, we expect to establish a more systematic framework for analytical and research cooperation between research institutes and industry, centered around K-BIC," he said.
Source: Korea Times News
