Lotte and KAIST completed the Lotte x KAIST R&D Center at KAIST’s main campus in Daejeon, creating a facility intended to support joint industry-academic research from basic studies through technology commercialization. The center was built with a 10 billion won ($7.2 million) construction donation from Lotte and KAIST’s own funds. It has one basement level, six above-ground floors and 4,298 square meters of floor area. Its research agenda includes systems metabolic engineering, biofuels and bioplastics, green hydrogen (hydrogen produced using renewable energy), renewable energy and batteries, with artificial intelligence applied across the work. Lotte affiliates will collaborate with KAIST on strategic technologies, including AI semiconductor and low-earth-orbit satellite communication materials, electric-vehicle battery heat-dissipation materials, bio and healthcare research, and ultra-high-speed transmission circuit materials for data centers and AI accelerators. Lotte Group Chairman Dong-bin Shin said Lotte would support faculty and students so they could pursue research and challenges without fear of failure, and expressed hope that the center would become a hub for cooperation crossing the university-company boundary. The group plans to connect technologies developed at the center to its businesses. Lotte and KAIST have expanded cooperation through technology transfers and personnel exchanges since 2012, when they began sponsoring master’s and doctoral programs for employees. In 2022, they established the Lotte Chemical-KAIST Carbon Neutrality Research Center, which has completed eight carbon-neutrality projects and secured 15 patents.