The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST, President Hong Gi-hoon) announced the relocation of its office from its current location in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, to Innovative City in Dongsam-dong, which is part of Yeongdo in Busan. This relocation, which is part of the government effort to relocate government offices to locations outside Seoul, began on October 30 and is expected to be completed by December 22.

The new KIOST building in Busan will be located in Dongsam-dong, Yeongdo-gu, and will consist of 13 buildings. The total floor area will be 44,060 square meters (on a plot of land 159,634 square meters in size), and approximately 68 percent of the facilities will be dedicated to research and experimentation.

As a participant in the government’s super-energy-saving construction project, KIOST applied optimal designs and technologies to reduce the energy consumption of the new office building. The building will also feature diverse research facilities, including an observation room for the geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI), a hydraulic experiment center capable of simulating the movement of ocean water, a biological experiment room for analyzing genomes, and a repair center for ocean sensors and equipment, as well as research facilities for processing ocean-related big data. In addition, a clean room for sensitive experiments and refrigeration and freezer facilities for marine sample storage will be installed.
 
“With the relocation of our office to Busan, we hope to recruit talented individuals from the surrounding regions, as well as from around the world, and work with related organizations in the marine cluster in Dongsam-dong, based on which we hope to become a global hub of ocean science and technology research and development,” remarked Hong Gi-hoon.