JBNU has partnered with Thales Group, a leading European defense company, to pursue strategic cooperation to train talent for the global defense industry and advanced technologies.

JBNU announced that on April 16 it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Thales and established a mid-to-long-term cooperation framework to cultivate future talent based on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and to expand Industry–University Collaboration.

Thales is a global company with world-class competitiveness across aerospace, defense, cybersecurity, and digital identity, and has been a major partner in Korea for more than 40 years. Through this cooperation, Thales is expected to identify and support outstanding domestic talent at an early stage and to secure a talent pool that can be linked to its global operations over the mid to long term.

This agreement is notable as a new cooperation model in which a global defense company directly partners with a domestic university to cultivate talent. In particular, it is the first time Thales has introduced a scholarship program in cooperation with a Korean university, demonstrating that global defense companies are extending their talent acquisition strategies to Korean universities.

Thales plans to operate a scholarship program this year for undergraduates enrolled in the newly established Department of Advanced Defense Studies at JBNU, the first of its kind in Korea. The two institutions plan to begin with scholarship support and gradually expand practical cooperation programs, including mentoring and internship links.

The core of the cooperation is Thales’s "STEM for ALL" program. The program provides scholarships to outstanding students in need of financial support in STEM fields and supports career exploration through mentoring and exchanges with company experts. It is evaluated as a differentiated model in that it provides experiences linked to the industrial field beyond simple financial support.

JBNU plans to further strengthen its convergent education capabilities in the advanced defense industry through this cooperation. The university will establish a linked structure of scholarships, mentoring, and internships so that students can directly experience the global industrial environment and systematically train the next-generation talent to lead K-defense.

Moreover, the agreement has significance as a new Industry–University Collaboration model that connects the region and global companies. With global corporate cooperation added to JBNU’s initiatives to establish defense-related departments and build a defense industrial cluster, the formation of an ecosystem that organically combines education, industry, and the region is expected.

President Yang O-bong said, “This cooperation is an important starting point for training future talent together with a global defense company,” and added, “We will continue to expand opportunities for students to understand the global industrial field and plan their careers.”