Seoul National University, EOS GmbH Korea, and KITECH 3D Printing Center sign MOU for metal AM workforce training

Seoul National University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, EOS GmbH Korea, and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) 3D Printing Manufacturing Innovation Center have signed a five-year, auto-renewing MOU to establish a systematic metal additive manufacturing education and research partnership. The agreement, signed at SNU's Gwanak Campus, involves SNU creating a new regular curriculum course on additive manufacturing, EOS providing professional training materials, Train-the-Trainer programs, and academic licenses for its global academy content-deployed for the first time in Asia-and KITECH offering hands-on practice using EOS equipment at its Siheung center. Key signatories included SNU Mechanical Engineering Department Head Professor Gyujin Cho, EOS GmbH Korea General Manager Seunggyun Kim, and KITECH Siheung 3D Printing Center Director Yong Son.

This partnership directly addresses a structural gap in South Korea's AM ecosystem: while demand for metal AM in aerospace, defense, and automotive production lines is surging, domestic university education remains heavily skewed toward polymer-based 3D printing due to low equipment access and a lack of specialized training materials. By embedding EOS's globally validated industrial curriculum into a top-tier engineering program and coupling it with KITECH's production-grade LPBF equipment, the MOU creates a rare tripartite pipeline from theory to hands-on qualification. For EOS, this is a strategic beachhead in Korea's defense-accelerated AM market-a vertical where NDAA-style localization pressures are less formalized than in the US but where domestic supply chain preferences are growing. The deal also strengthens EOS's position against Chinese LPBF competitors, who have been aggressively courting Korean industrial users with lower-cost hardware but less established training ecosystems.

For EOS, the practical value lies in embedding its workflow and qualification language into the next generation of Korean manufacturing engineers before they enter industry. The Train-the-Trainer model means EOS scales its instructional capacity without deploying permanent staff, while the academic licenses create a long-tail software lock-in. The real test will be whether SNU and KITECH can produce enough certified graduates to meet the defense and aerospace hiring demand that both EOS and Korean OEMs are betting on. If the program delivers, it becomes a replicable template for other Asian markets facing the same talent bottleneck.