Konkuk University becomes the first in South Korea to be selected for Humanities Korea three consecutive times, investing 17.37 billion won over 23 years to build an “Unification Knowledge Platform”

[Financial News] The Institute of Humanities Research at Konkuk University’s Institute of Humanities for Unification announced on the 3rd that it had been selected as a research hub for the government’s flagship humanities development initiative, the Humanities Korea (HK) 3.0 Support Program. Konkuk University is the first among university research institutes in South Korea to be selected for the program three consecutive times based on the lead research institute. With this selection, Konkuk University will secure an additional 4.8 billion won in government funding over the next six years and continue its unification research, bringing the cumulative total to 17.37 billion won over 23 years since 2009.
Building on this support, the institute plans to establish an “Unification Humanities Knowledge Platform” that will make research achievements previously confined to university laboratories accessible to the general public. The platform is intended to serve as a knowledge hub that helps build a peaceful community by enabling civil society to easily find and share the research findings and humanities resources accumulated over many years.
In particular, the third-stage research will move beyond discussions of unification centered on politics, institutions, or territory and focus on breaking down barriers involving culture, values, and social conflict in everyday life. It will seek humanities-based solutions to transform complex divisions in modern society, including conflicts between social classes and groups, into opportunities for new solidarity and coexistence.
Song Chi-man, a Konkuk University professor in the Department of Media and Communication and the research director, said, “Being selected three consecutive times is both recognition of the research achievements accumulated over the past 17 years and a call to address our future tasks in new ways.” He added, “We will work to open our research findings as accessible knowledge that anyone in civil society can use, rather than allowing them to remain solely within academia.”
The Humanities Korea (HK) Support Program is South Korea’s largest humanities support initiative, providing long-term research funding to develop university-affiliated research institutes into world-class hubs. Established in 2009, Konkuk University’s Institute of Humanities for Unification has built an independent research field by publishing academic series and offering graduate-linked education. It received 10.26 billion won over 10 years under the first-stage HK Program and 2.31 billion won over seven years under the second-stage HK+ Program, launched in 2019.

[email protected] Man-ki Kim Reporter