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Hyundai Motor Group Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo / Hyundai Motor Group

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation has established a new Post-Doc support program to nurture next-generation science and technology researchers. The foundation plans to enhance the research capabilities of future STEM talent through research grants and networking programs.

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation announced on July 30 that it launched the "CMK Science and Technology Fellow" program and selected its first cohort of eight beneficiaries.

The CMK Science and Technology Fellow program was established as part of the "Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Scholarship" growth program, the foundation's talent development platform, to support postdoctoral researchers in advanced science and technology fields.

The foundation will provide selected researchers with up to two years of research funding, offering 20 million won annually for the domestic track and 70 million won annually for the overseas track. The maximum funding scale reaches up to 140 million won.

Along with financial support, the foundation will operate networking programs such as quarterly academic exchanges and mentoring. Through these initiatives, the foundation aims to help researchers develop into science and technology leaders equipped not only with research capability but also with global collaboration and social problem-solving skills.

This year, eight postdoctoral researchers conducting research in diverse fields—including resources and environmental engineering, chemistry, biological sciences, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, and IT convergence engineering—were selected as the final recipients.

The foundation expects this program to help researchers overcome the so-called "research death valley," a phase after earning a doctorate where maintaining independent research often proves difficult. The initiative aims to reduce the departure of exceptional talent from academia and boost research competitiveness by providing a stable research environment during the postdoctoral stage.

This project is operated in connection with the existing "CMK Science and Technology Scholarship." Eligibility is limited to current scholarship recipients and alumni, establishing a comprehensive support system across the entire researcher lifecycle spanning undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels.

Based on the philosophy of its founder, Hyundai Motor Group Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo, that "discovering talent is national competitiveness," the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation plans to continuously expand its support for future science and technology talent.

                                                                                                          Nam Hyun-soo