NRF G-HUB — International R&D Center
Offers frameworks for Korean and international institutions to establish strategic global research center partnerships.
The Global R&D Center Cooperation Hub — G-HUB (전략형 국제공동연구사업) — is the National Research Foundation of Korea's primary instrument for establishing strategic international research center partnerships. Administered by NRF under MSIT oversight, the program carries a total budget of 22,400 million KRW and supports projects of three to ten years in duration. G-HUB replaced the earlier Global Research Lab (GRL) instrument and now consolidates bilateral and multilateral R&D center cooperation functions. In FY2026, the 'Global Network Extension under G-Hub' sub-call was posted on 2026-03-23 as call item number 57 on NRF's English call-for-proposals board.
G-HUB operates as a rolling program with sub-calls issued at irregular intervals throughout the year, each targeting different international country partnerships or thematic cooperation areas. The total program budget is 22,400 million KRW, but individual project-level award sizes and per-sub-call budget allocations are not published at the program level — these are specified in Korean-language HWP and PDF attachments accompanying each sub-call announcement. Eligible applicants include Korean universities, research institutes, and for-profit or non-profit organizations, but an international R&D institution partnership is mandatory. The specific partner countries eligible vary by sub-call.
Applications require a confirmed Korean lead institution paired with a foreign R&D partner, with research in strategically important technology areas. Detailed application procedures, award ceilings, and country-specific requirements are contained in the HWP and PDF guideline files published with each sub-call on the NRF English call-for-proposals board. Applicants must monitor the NRF board actively throughout the year to catch relevant sub-calls when they open, as there is no single annual deadline for the umbrella G-HUB program.
Funds strategic international R&D center cooperation between Korean institutions and foreign partners in priority technology areas, with a total program budget of 22.4 billion KRW and project durations of three to ten years.
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