He stressed that the SUH Kyungbae Science Foundation is not related to the company as it has already its own charity organs, such as the AmorePacific Foundation and AmorePacific Welfare Foundation.

Chairman Suh plans to sell preferred stocks of AmorePacific Group or AmorePacific Corp. he personally own to raise the funds.

The foundation is expected to spend 20 billion won every year, including 18 billion won for funding research projects. Suh is the second-richest man in South Korea, with a net worth of $8.2 billion, trailing Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee with $14 billion.

“When the company was going through a very difficult time in the mid-90s, we were able to cope with the difficulties with science and technology,” Suh told of the motivation of building the first foundation funded by his private wealth.

He also said that he wanted to see innovative achievements in 20 or 30 years, which can bring about the positive changes in daily lives of human.

The foundation will select three to five science researchers focusing on pure and life science each year, funding up to 2.5 billion won for each project for the period of five years.

The SUH foundation will make an announcement in November and begin to accept proposals from January and February 2017. After thorough examination, the foundation will announce its decision in June 2017, according to a statement by the foundation.

Initially the foundation will support innovative Korean scientists but will gradually open the door to other researchers in Asia, Suh said. 

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)