We are honoured to announce that on 15 June 2023, we signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Republic of Korea National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH), led by Director General Kim Yeonsoo, under the aegis of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA). This five-year agreement will allow us to expand our efforts with the Republic of Korea to conserve and manage cultural and natural heritage.
The Republic of Korea is one of ICCROM’s most long-standing partners. This year marks 55 years since the country joined us as a Member State. We have maintained a close relationship over the decades, with four Korean nationals having served as ICCROM Council Members, including current Council Member Young-Jae Chung, and dozens of professionals participated in our programmes and trainings. The strong and continued support from the Republic of Korea for three consecutive phases of funding has been the cornerstone of our work on CollAsia and World Heritage courses, including People Nature Culture (PNC).
On this occasion, ICCROM Director-General Webber Ndoro said, “I hope that more research results and conclusions can be mutually shared between ICCROM and the Republic of Korea through various conferences, courses, activities, research projects and exchange of publications, but most importantly through the exchange of people. Heritage is about people, and all of our work centres on people. I sincerely hope that more people from Korea can be active on the international stage, especially by utilizing the ICCROM network.”
In the coming years, this new agreement will enable us to collaborate further, such as by jointly hosting academic research and international conferences, planning and implementing our CollAsia programme, exchanging knowledge and research, and translating some of our key publications and findings into Korean.
We are very grateful for our active collaboration with NRICH, which has committed to promoting its research capabilities, scientific expertise and human resources accumulated since the institute’s establishment in 1969. This cooperation will strengthen the planning and operation of ICCROM capacity-building programmes that are generously funded by the CHA Funds in Trust (FIT), and increase visibility and exchange at the international level.
