The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Ryu Seok-hyun), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, is restructuring its organization to focus on preemptively securing national strategic technologies and establishing a foundation for achieving Digital-KIMM by 2030. The restructuring will also lay the foundation for growth into a world-class comprehensive research institute leading the K-Machine movement.

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) announced that it will implement organizational restructuring effective February 5th to proactively respond to national strategic technology research and development, government strategic fields, and human resource development directions.

The plan is to discover directly related fields among the 12 national strategic technologies and introduce a research institute system that can quickly respond to the direction of government policy promotion, such as the National Technology Research Center (NTC) and the Global TOP Strategic Research Group, as well as strategic technology research and development.

Among the national strategic technologies, the Autonomous Manufacturing Research Institute will be established in the semiconductor and display fields, the Carbon Neutral Machinery Research Institute in the hydrogen field, and the AI Robot Research Institute in the advanced robot and manufacturing field. As subordinate organizations to each research institute, the Semiconductor Equipment Research Center, Liquid Hydrogen Plant Research Center, and Bio-Machine Research Lab will be newly established, transcending the threshold of research headquarters that focus on specific fields and fostering organizations that can encompass and converge related related fields.

These research institutes are designed to strengthen the role of the Vice President as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and to promote convergence between research organizations.The current director will be transferred to the vice director position.

In addition, we plan to focus on leading the growth of the organization by establishing a step-by-step organizational development system that can gradually advance from research lab → research center → research headquarters → research institute.

In particular, to strengthen digital transformation and AI technology integration in the machinery sector, the Virtual Engineering Platform Research Center will be established, and efforts will focus on building a digital platform for the machinery industry through the Virtual Engineering Research Center and the Industrial Machinery DX Lab.

In addition, we will present a clear representative brand by revising the department names that were centered on discipline and function to names that reflect their mission and products, such as Nanolithography Research Center, Heat Pump Research Center, and Secondary Battery Equipment Research Lab.

KIMM also plans to further accelerate the establishment of a training foundation to efficiently cultivate science and technology talent in line with the government's strategy to secure national strategic technology talent. A new Human Resources Development Office will be established to strengthen the virtuous cycle of talent flow, including training future research capabilities through job analyses of internal employees and assigning researchers to the right positions. Furthermore, the KIMM School, under the Vice President's direction, will be established to foster trainees into the talent the nation needs, disseminate knowledge across the science, technology, and industry sectors, and attract and support researchers to develop them into outstanding talent.

Ryu Seok-hyun, president of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, said, “Based on the reorganized organization, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials will be reborn as a world-class comprehensive research institute leading K-Machine through BEST-KIMM management including Big Picture Management, Essence Management, Speed Management, and Talent Management,” and “We will make every effort to strategically secure national strategic technologies and achieve Digital-KIMM by 2030.”