With Korea's recent association to Horizon Europe, Professor Claire O'Malley, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Global), recently visited Seoul where she met with university leaders, research funding agencies, our alumni community and the National Museum of Korea to further enhance our research, academic, and cultural partnerships.
Forging new research partnerships
Professor O'Malley visited Sungkyunkwan University and Seoul National University to progress further our research collaborations, including through Horizon Europe.
As part of her discussions with Sungkyunkwan University, Professor O'Malley discussed how
our Centre for Programmable Biological Matter is designing and engineering artificial nanoscale machines and materials using biological building blocks and proteins to revolutionise targeted medicine and smart drug delivery. Researchers from the Centre for Programmable Biological Matter are now developing research collaborations with Sungkyunkwan University counterparts.
Professor O'Malley also visited Seoul National University's AI Institute during which she showcased our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, which is transforming how we understand and study the relationship between human life and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Connecting with our alumni community in Seoul
With over one hundred Korean students and 300 Durham alumni in Korea, Professor O'Malley also hosted a dinner for Durham alumni based in Seoul. Guests included Gareth Weir, British Deputy Ambassador to Seoul, who graduated in Philosophy and Theology.
Expanding our cultural connections with Korea
Our Oriental Museum has the third largest Korean collection in the UK. In 2023, the Oriental Museum was successful in its application to the Overseas Korean Galleries Support Program run by the National Museum of Korea (NMK) - the world's sixth largest museum.
The Oriental Museum was awarded funding for a two-year project, which has subsequently been extended for a third year. This award is funding a full-time post for a Curator of Korean Collections at the Oriental Museum.
As part of our partnership with NMK, we created an exhibition on the most important donors to our Korean collections, Richard and Joan Rutt. After showing in Durham, this exhibition has since toured to the European Association of Korean Studies Biennial Conference, held at the University of Edinburgh in June 2025 and the University of Seoul Museum from November 2025.
