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The JNU Traditional Game Research Team at the Marine Sports Center (Director Prof. Seo Tae-beom) held a special lecture on traditional Korean games in Rome, Italy, on January 21 and 25, 2025. The lecture, held at the Korean Cultural Center in Italy and the Korean Language School in Milan, was designed to promote traditional Korean culture and research on traditional games in conjunction with the global spread of these games.

On January 21, the course at the Korean Cultural Center in Rome was attended by more than 30 students from the Vatican High School (Istituto Pontificio Sant'Apollinare), who experienced Korean traditional games such as gongginori, bisachigi, and tuhonori.

On January 25, about 50 locals from Milan, as well as students from the Italian Hangeul School, participated in the lecture at the Milan Hangeul School to enjoy games like gongginori, bisachigi, jegichagi, and tuhonori. In particular, the Milan Hangeul School signed an agreement to provide materials on traditional Korean games and Newtro sports programs. Through this agreement, the two organizations decided to continue collaborating on the learning of Korean culture and the Korean language through traditional Korean games.

The Traditional Korean Game Research Team at JNU Marine Sports Center has been promoting the "development of sports education programs using traditional Korean games" as a national policy initiative of the Korean Ministry of Education since 2019.

In recognition of its research achievements, the project was selected as one of the "Top 50 Excellence in Academic Research Support Projects" by the Korean Ministry of Education in 2023. The result of this study, "Newtro Sport," is a sportsification model based on traditional Korean games. The team is working on training leaders through the distribution of Newtro Sports programs to schools and the development of qualification courses.