The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 16th that it will be implementing the '2024 Integrated Announcement of SME Technology Development Support Project' for a total of KRW 1.4097 trillion in technology development (R&D) projects, including KRW 458.4 billion in new projects.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to improve investment efficiency through large-scale business restructuring this year, significantly expand private-sector R&D investment in deep tech, and strengthen support for strategic technology fields and global advancement/cooperation.

It was announced that the support system will be reorganized to increase the professionalism and fairness of the selection process and prevent excessive and duplicate applications in advance.

The government announced that it will significantly expand R&D linked to private investment, which provides follow-up support when startups and technology-based innovative companies in new industries receive investment from private sector organizations such as venture capital firms (VCs) after their technological prowess is recognized.

The new TIPS budget increased by 39.8% year-on-year from KRW 85.9 billion last year to KRW 120.1 billion this year, and scale-up TIPS increased by 35.4% year-on-year to KRW 38.6 billion this year.

In addition, in order to create sales performance through rapid mass production following product development, we support large-scale funds in the form of loans, and after the project is successful, we recover the loans and reinvest them in excellent projects through a loan-based technology development (R&D) system.;D) is also planned to be promoted.

62.1 billion won will be provided for R&D in strategic technology fields. In conjunction with the ‘12 major national strategic technologies,’ a separate field has been established to support future innovation-leading technologies with large ripple effects, such as △artificial intelligence (AI), △autonomous driving, and △aerospace. He said that he will establish a systematic support system for startups to localize small business strategy technologies and proactively respond to the global value chain.

In addition, △26.7 billion won was allocated to global expansion and collaborative R&D of innovative companies, and △51.8 billion won was allocated to expanding opportunities for innovative growth of regional technology-excellent small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is also pursuing institutional improvements to improve the operation of R&D projects, such as strengthening the verification system to prevent similar or duplicate support, in order to enhance fairness, equity, and expertise in selection.

In order to enhance the professionalism and fairness of assignment review, a dedicated organization will be established to evaluate the submitted assignments, and a ‘responsible evaluation committee member (tentative name)’ will be designated for each submitted assignment to strengthen the evaluation committee member’s responsibility for the assignments.

In addition, in order to encourage selection and focus based on corporate autonomy, we plan to limit the number of applications per company and encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to select and apply for innovation projects on their own.

Kim Woo-soon, director general of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “This year will be the first year for a new leap forward as large-scale restructuring and institutional innovation are taking place simultaneously in the R&D business for SMEs.” He added, “I hope that through bold technology development (R&D) innovation that has never been seen before, we can kill two birds with one stone: ‘government investment efficiency’ and ‘corporate innovative growth.’”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to announce in detail the support targets, support contents, conditions, etc. through future announcements for each detailed project, and plans to hold inter-ministerial briefing sessions and regional briefing sessions until February.