50% subsidy on labor costs for hiring bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree researchers
Preference given to three strategic industries and eight leading business sectors
| Applications accepted from August 12 to September 11

It is expected that it will become easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to hire research personnel.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 30th that it is recruiting companies for the second round of the 'Small and Medium Enterprise Research Personnel Support Project' to support small and medium enterprises that are having difficulties recruiting research personnel.

Securing excellent research personnel is essential for enhancing competitiveness, but small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) find it difficult to hire researchers.

51.8% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are currently short of R&D personnel compared to the appropriate level, and the average number of researchers per SME is 4.3, compared to 4.7% of large corporations.

Research personnel support projects are broadly divided into recruitment and dispatch support projects.

First, the job application This program subsidizes 50% of labor costs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with corporate research centers (or dedicated R&D departments) hiring researchers with bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees in science and engineering. The program is divided into two categories: new and experienced.

Dispatch support is a project that dispatches researchers currently working at public research institutes to small and medium-sized enterprises that have corporate research institutes, and provides support for 50% of the personnel expenses of the dispatched researchers.

Until last year, we did not support undergraduate research personnel, but starting this year, we are supporting new undergraduate research personnel (70 people) and giving extra points (3 points) to venture companies.

In addition, during this second round of recruitment for supported companies, we plan to give preference to researchers and companies in the three strategic industries (data, blockchain, sharing economy, AI, hydrogen economy) and eight leading businesses (smart factories, smart farms, fintech, new energy industries, smart cities, drones, future automobiles, and biohealth) to strengthen the technological development capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in new future industries.

The application and acceptance period for the business is from Monday, August 12 to Wednesday, September 11, and applications can be submitted online through the Small and Medium Business Technology Development Comprehensive Management System ( www.smtech.go.kr ).