Launch of a new technology commercialization project linked to innovative procurement
If the technology development is successful, it will be designated as an excellent procurement item.
Public institutions are requesting measures to measure green algae and address fine dust.

If the technology development proposed by a public institution is successful, a market will open where the developed product can be supplied to the public institution through a contract.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Public Procurement Service announced that they will launch the "Innovative Procurement-Linked New Technology Commercialization Project," which will first identify the needs of public institutions, then proceed with technology development and designate them as "excellent procurement items" by the Public Procurement Service, allowing public institutions to purchase them through negotiated contracts.

The Excellent Procurement Items system is a system that designates items with superior performance, technology, and quality as "Excellent Procurement Items" and supplies them to each requesting organization through direct contracts, etc. in order to improve the quality of procurement items and support sales channels for small and medium-sized venture companies, pursuant to the Public Procurement Business Act.

This project is a procurement-linked R&D project launched by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy this year, and has a budget of 1.996 billion won. With 82 institutions submitting R&D development requests for the seven selected projects, the competition rate was over 11:1, confirming the high demand from public institutions seeking to solve problems using innovative technologies and the private sector's expectations of developing sales channels through public purchasing power.

This year, seven projects were selected based on innovation evaluation indicators such as publicness, social value, and impact on people's lives, including the development of drones for rapid mountainous terrain disaster response (National Park Service), development of VR content to prevent dementia in the elderly (Mokpo City Hall), and construction of an intelligent air conditioning system for indoor fine dust management (Seongnam Urban Development Corporation).

The institution that proposes the optimal solution will be selected as the final technology development institution through a competitive dialogue method, which seeks alternatives that meet the client's needs through dialogue with bidders and selects the best bidder for the task. The announcement of the project implementation organization will be made from the 5th of this month to the 8th of next month.

After completing technology development, field demonstration, and performance verification over the next two years, it will undergo the Public Procurement Service's excellent procurement product designation process and be applied to the field starting in 2021.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Public Procurement Service signed an inter-agency business agreement to launch this project and to leverage the purchasing power of the public procurement market to induce technological innovation and to support innovative technologies to enter the public procurement market as a catalyst for their initial market entry.

Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Jeong Seung-il said, “Since the project was planned based on the needs of public institutions, which are the actual users, companies will be able to significantly reduce the burden of commercialization as they will be able to open up sales channels by utilizing the procurement market as long as they develop the technology well.” He also asked public institutions to actively participate so that the results of R&D can be utilized in the field rather than remaining in the laboratory, contributing to solving public problems and creating new value.

Jeong Moo-kyung, Commissioner of the Public Procurement Service, said, “The role of public procurement is increasingly being emphasized as a strategic function that goes beyond simple purchasing of goods, and for the industrial innovation ecosystem to function properly, forming an initial market for innovative products is important.” He added, “We will continue to expand public procurement of national research and development results so that companies can lay the foundation for technology commercialization through the public market and so that the effects can be transferred to the private sector to create new markets.”