DAEJEON — The Korea Innovation Foundation (INNOPOLIS) has become the first public technology commercialization agency to win an UNLEASH Award.
The foundation said on the 23rd that it received the award for its achievements in human resource development (HRD) at UNLEASH World 2026, a global human resources and talent development event held on the 22nd at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in France.
Five Korean organizations won awards this year: the foundation, KEPCO, Korea Midland Power, Korea Southern Power and Korea South-East Power. Among past Korean winners, the foundation is the first specialized agency for public technology commercialization to be honored.
UNLEASH World is a large international event hosted by the European Association for People Management (EAPM) and UNLEASH, a U.K.-based global HR group. It brings together human resources and talent development specialists and corporate officials from around the world to share key agendas in personnel and organizational management along with cases of innovation.
This year's event drew more than 8,500 participants from about 140 countries, with more than 400 speakers and more than 350 companies and institutions taking part.
The UNLEASH Award is an international recognition program that selects outstanding organizations based on a comprehensive assessment of the strategic role of talent development, its alignment with organizational vision and business strategy, its contribution to organizational performance, and its innovation and sustainability.
The foundation earned high marks for organically linking its organizational vision, talent development strategy and business strategy, and for systematizing that framework so that it translates into organizational performance.
The agency has also established a model of the talent it seeks that reflects its core values, and has built a training system based on that model to continuously strengthen employees' job expertise and capacity to respond to future challenges.
"We will continue to raise our employees' expertise and the organization's ability to execute through strategic talent development," said Jung Hee-kwon, chairman of the foundation. "We will further expand the foundation's role as a forward base for global deep-tech technology commercialization."