The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) in South Korea has announced the results of the public contest held to select the candidate regions for the Global Bio Campus recently. MoHW published the final list of the five candidate regions including Incheon Metropolitan City (Songdo), Gyeonggi-do (Siheung), Chungcheongbuk-do (Osong), Jeollanam-do (Hwasun), and Gyeongsangbuk-do (Andong), and will work with these municipalities on the project details.

The “Global Bio Campus” is a training facility designed to provide training and education to the biomanufacturing workforce in low- and middle-income countries. The project was launched after Korea was designated as the “Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing” (GTH-B) by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2022. 

The results of the contest have found that the five candidate regions of Songdo, Siheung, Osong, Hwasun, and Andong have training facilities, venue sites, and education capacity that are suitable to conduct the required training and education. The government plans to run local campuses in these five regions and create a nationwide network of campuses to integrate Korea’s bio-education capacity.

The Global Bio Songdo Campus (an Incheon-Yonsei University consortium located in Incheon Metropolitan City) will perform the roles of the main campus and the Workforce Training Hub Support Foundation will be located within this campus. The Songdo campus, planned to be built with a gross floor area of 3,300m2, will be furnished with lecture rooms, labs, offices, etc. Its official opening is scheduled for the end of 2024.

The five local campuses will work closely together and actively participate in operating the GTH-B, in tandem with their corresponding roles to play in educating and training over 2,000 global biomanufacturing workforce every year.