Hyundai Motor Group said Sunday that it has agreed with two U.S. elite schools to build a research center in a bid to enhance global research and development capability and nurture talented engineers in the automotive sector.

The Korean auto giant, which owns Hyundai and Kia brands, signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis for the establishment of the “Hyundai Center of Excellence.”

UC Berkeley and UC Davis are known for their expertise in the fields of integrated safety control and auto kinetics, respectively. Hyundai plans to dispatch engineers to the schools for joint projects. 

Yang Woong-chul, Hyundai Motor’s vice chairman, Shankar Sastry, dean of the college of engineering at UC Berkeley, and Enrique Lavernia, dean of the college of engineering at UC Davis, attended the signing in Berkeley, California.

Hyundai also said it will step up efforts for the “Hyundai-Kia R&D Global Frontier” project, which aims to support global R&D experts through joint research activities with experts at the world’s prestigious schools and engineering companies.

Unlike existing overseas training programs, the new program will select talented researchers and require them to carry out diverse R&D activities with international engineers, which finally could translate into the development of new vehicles, the company said.

Together with the new MOU, Hyundai will seek partnerships with 17 European engineering organizations like Spain’s IDIADA, the U.K.’s RICARDO and Australia’s AVL and five global schools including Stanford University.

“Through the MOU, we have built a global R&D hub for the joint R&D on a variety of vehicles. We will secure new competitiveness to lead the global car market by securing future technologies, talented engineers and R&D capability,” said Yang in a statement.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)