SPRU news items

The University of Sussex Business School’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) delivered two successful international summer programmes with four leading South Korean partner universities in July-August 2026. Undergraduate students from Seoul National University (SNU), and a group of postgraduate students drawn from Hanyang University (HYU), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), and Gyeongsang National University (GNU), were brought together with SPRU’s expert faculty to explore the relationships between innovation, sustainability, technology and public policy.

SNU students visiting Sussex undertook two weeks of learning and activities around ‘Sustainability and Innovation’. This included topics in science, technology and innovation policy, sustainable development, climate policy, energy transitions, AI and global sustainability challenges. Meanwhile, the 49 postgraduate students from HYU, SKKU and GNU learned about ‘Regional, National and International Dimensions of Technology Policy and Management’, which examined innovation systems, technology governance, regional innovation clusters, AI, quantum technologies, offshore wind and financing high-tech innovation.

The summer school students also got to visit the Rampion Wind Farm Visitor Centre in Brighton, as well as to engage with the wider Sussex summer school community. HYU’s Professor Taehyun Jung lauded the initiative as a “wonderful summer retreat, away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, yet close to the heart of innovation,” while his colleague Professor Wooyoung Kim was struck by the programme’s successful combination of “academic depth with real-world experience”.

The range of SPRU’s offering, combining rigorous interdisciplinary academic expertise with a focus on practical policy and industry application, was also clearly well-received by participating students. Taesun Um, an HYU postgraduate and experienced technical sales professional, found the programme profoundly relevant to longstanding questions in his mind about the real links between technology, industry and policy: “SPRU, drawing on its 60 years of intellectual tradition, gave me answers... one piece at a time”. Reflecting on the course content, he noted that from looking at “real industry cases in energy and offshore wind, and at the financing of high-tech innovation through a policy lens in particular, I realised that what I had been seeing on the ground all along was part of a much broader context. This experience will stay with me as a valuable point of reference as I continue studying technology management and working in the field”.

SNU engineering student Seoyeon Kim, meanwhile, found the opportunity to have their perspective broadened. Having previously focussed on firm-led technological innovation solutions to sustainability challenges, the programme, they claimed enabled them to realise that “broader private-sector innovation, together with effective policy-making, can have an even greater impact. The lectures, supported by clear evidence and real-world examples… strengthened my belief that it remains a vision that we must continue to pursue”.

SPRU’s faculty likewise relished the opportunity to collaborate with South Korean partner institutions’ students and faculty. SPRU’s Professor Adrian Ely praised the visiting students, noting that SNU’s students were a “joy to teach,” with each bringing “their different disciplinary backgrounds to the summer programme’s theme… and demonstrated excellent teamwork around policy and entrepreneurship activities”. The combined HYU-SKKU-GNU cohort, meanwhile, he found were a “great privilege to work with… to share academic and practical knowledge between the UK and Korea,” and he now looks forward to extending these partnerships in the coming years.

Indeed, besides the success of the 2026 summer programmes, the longstanding relationship between Korean institutions and Sussex has been undeniably strengthened. Professor Sangook Park, SNU’s Programme Director, pointed out that the “University of Sussex has gained increasing recognition in Korea, with a growing number of universities and institutions visiting, and SNU is proud to have worked with Sussex from the early stages to build this successful programme together”. Dr Youngha Chang, Programme Co-Convenor and Associate Professor in Innovation Management at SPRU, added: “These summer programmes form part of a wider and growing portfolio of engagement, including MSc programmes with a placement year, faculty visits and academic exchanges. Participation in the placement-year route has roughly tripled across recent cohorts”.

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