Nine government research institutes unite for open-source R&D innovation in AI era

Nine government-funded research institutes will join forces with industry, academia and developers to chart an open-source R&D innovation strategy for the AI era.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), together with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST), announced Tuesday that it will hold "OST 2026 Open Source Tech Day" at the aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, on Wednesday.

Held under the theme "Open Source Innovation: Building the Future with AI," the event aims to share insights on how the convergence of AI and open source will drive R&D innovation and reshape the technology ecosystem.

ETRI first launched Open Source Tech Day in 2020, and this year marks its seventh edition. It is also the first edition held since the consortium's open-source working group expanded into a broader, cross-institute cooperative framework.

Participating institutions have grown to nine. Alongside ETRI, they include the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, the Korea Institute of Energy Research, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, and the Korea Food Research Institute.

Related agencies — including the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP), the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) and the Software Policy and Research Institute (SPRi) — will also take part, along with LG AI Research and developer communities.

This year's central theme is "AI technological sovereignty." The event frames open source not merely as a means of sharing software, but as critical infrastructure that determines AI innovation, industrial competitiveness and technological sovereignty.

A particular focus will be placed on the growing importance of open standards and the open-source ecosystem as agentic AI — systems that go beyond generative AI to autonomously set goals and carry out tasks using tools and data — spreads rapidly.

Keynote speaker Marjin Gilbert, a director at the Agentic AI Foundation, will present on "From AI to Agentic AI: The Role of Open Standards," outlining the significance of open standards in the transition to agentic AI.

Lee Hwa-young, a senior vice president at LG AI Research, will examine copyright issues and legal risks surrounding AI training data.

The afternoon will feature 18 specialized presentations across three tracks, covering the latest issues — including the sovereign agentic AI stack, AI safety and reliability, China's AI and open-source ecosystem, AI and intellectual property, digital sovereignty, the AI transformation of research institutions, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which has emerged as a key technology in the AI agent ecosystem.

Kim Ik-gyun, head of ETRI's information strategy division, said open source "has established itself as a core foundation for connecting knowledge and technology across research institutions and for accelerating the speed and applicability of AI research and development."

ETRI President Park Se-ung said open source "goes beyond the choice of individual researchers or institutions — it is a research culture that government-funded institutes must collectively embrace and an important foundation for R&D innovation."