Innopolis Foundation wins global HRD award, first for a public tech-commercialization body

The Innopolis Foundation has been recognized for its achievements in global human resources development, winning an international award in the field.

The foundation said it received the UNLEASH Award — given to outstanding organizations in human resources development (HRD) — at UNLEASH World 2026, held Thursday (local time) at Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris.

Five Korean organizations were selected as recipients this year: the Innopolis Foundation, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Korea Midland Power, Korea Southern Power and Korea South-East Power (KOEN). The foundation is the first public technology-commercialization body in Korea to receive the award.

UNLEASH World is an international event where HR and talent development professionals and corporate representatives from around the world share innovations in workforce development and organizational management. This year's edition drew more than 8,500 participants from over 140 countries.

The UNLEASH Award evaluates organizations on the alignment between their HRD strategy and organizational vision, contribution to organizational performance, innovation and sustainability.

The Innopolis Foundation was highly rated for building an HRD framework that links its organizational vision with its project strategy, and for strengthening employees' professional expertise and capacity to respond to future challenges.

Also noted was the foundation's work in defining a talent model that reflects its core values and operating a training system aligned with that model, developing HRD as a central driver of organizational competitiveness.

The foundation said it plans to further refine its HRD framework to systematically develop the competencies employees need for key projects and to ensure that training outcomes translate into real on-the-job and organizational results.

"This award is international recognition that people are ultimately the core of what drives a technology-commercialization organization's competitiveness," said Jeong Hui-gwon, president of the Innopolis Foundation. "Through strategic talent development, we will enhance our members' expertise and organizational execution, and expand our role as a global deep tech commercialization hub."