50% support for personnel costs when hiring or dispatching research personnel
| New applications for bachelor's degree research personnel with extensive internship experience
Relaxation of standard salary and bonus points to attract talent to ventures
On the 25th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the business plan for recruiting and dispatching research personnel for SMEs and accepted applications from companies wishing to participate from March 13 to 27.

The research personnel recruitment and dispatch support program assists small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling to secure excellent research personnel in resolving labor shortages.

This is a government program that provides 50% of labor costs to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with corporate research institutes when they directly hire personnel to work at the institute or utilize dispatched researchers from public research institutions.
This year, the budget for research personnel support programs was increased by 18.4% compared to last year (24.5 billion KRW in 2018 → 29 billion KRW in 2019), thereby expanding the scale of support by 36.7%.(744 people in '18 → 1,017 people in '19)

To enhance the R&D capabilities of SMEs through field-tailored workforce support, new support (70 people) will be provided for the recruitment of bachelor's degree research personnel with extensive field internship experience, who have been in high demand among SMEs but previously excluded from support programs.

In addition, to expand the participation of research personnel in venture companies with low salaries, the plan is to relax the standard annual salary (reorganizing into an annual expansion system) and grant bonus points (3 points) for the 'Support Program for Emerging Research Personnel'.
The standard annual salary is the minimum salary that must be contracted with the hiring candidate to participate in the project, and it is permissible to contract at a rate exceeding the standard annual salary. Government subsidies are a fixed salary provided by the government regardless of the standard annual salary.

Detailed information regarding participation in the program can be found on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups website (www.mss.go.kr) or the SME Technology Development Management System (www.smtech.go.kr).

The “Support Program for Recruitment and Dispatch of Research Personnel in Small and Medium Enterprises,” which has been in operation since 2004, has supported a total of 12,857 individuals from 11,273 companies to date. This year, through field-tailored program restructuring such as new support for bachelor's degree research personnel and the relaxation of standard annual salaries, it is expected to contribute to alleviating the shortage of research personnel in SMEs and expanding their technological competitiveness.