NNSA News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, senior representatives of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Cabinet Office of Japan, and the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea (ROK) signed a Trilateral Framework on cooperation in science and innovation.
Under the Framework, the participants will develop a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in early 2024 to facilitate scientific collaboration in critical and emerging technology areas.
The signing of the Framework memorializes political commitments made during the historic Aug. 18 leaders’ summit at Camp David between President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida, and ROK President Yoon. It also comes ahead of a meeting between the three countries’ National Security Advisors in Seoul.
“This exciting partnership ultimately will enable the United States, Japan, and the ROK to collaborate at the forefront of new scientific and technological domains and reap economic and security benefits from the application of new knowledge and discoveries,” said Jill Hruby, Under Secretary for Nuclear Security of the U.S. Department of Energy and NNSA Administrator.
The Framework – based on the principles of mutual benefit, equality, and reciprocity – seeks to enhance the three countries’ cooperation on joint research and development in priority critical and emerging technology areas. The MoC will specify the technical areas of joint activity; candidate areas of cooperation could include computational sciences, such as advanced computing and artificial intelligence, materials sciences, and environmental sciences, such as atmospheric and earthquake modeling.
Under Secretary Hruby signed the Framework on behalf of the United States; Matsuo Hiroki, Secretary General for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy signed on behalf of Japan and Cho Seong Kyung, First Vice Minister and Minister of Science and ICT signed on behalf of the ROK.
The U.S. laboratories to participate in the trilateral collaboration are:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- Sandia National Laboratories; and
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Each has a proven track record of multi-disciplinary basic and applied science contributions as well as expert translation of basic and applied science outcomes into the private sector and economy as well as into deployed engineering systems.
