Expansion of support period and scale to over 3 years and 2 billion KRW
Intensive support for the 4th Industrial Revolution, materials, parts, and equipment, and the BIG3 sectors
Announcement of detailed support areas and items via technology roadmap


The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will begin accepting applications for the Startup Growth Technology Development Project (85.7 billion KRW, TIPS projects separate) and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project (88.8 billion KRW) for the first half of 2020 starting on the 17th.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has allocated a related budget of 1.4885 trillion won this year. Moving away from the existing support system focused on short-term and small amounts, it plans to expand the support period and scale to provide support for up to 3 years or more, up to 2 billion won.

In addition, the R&D support system was reformed by differentiating the duration and scale of technology development for each project to enable support tailored to the innovation capabilities of SMEs. Accordingly, support is provided by classifying it into △a standalone type led by a company △an industry-academia-research collaboration type △and a policy-oriented type reflecting policy needs.

Among these, the Startup Growth Technology Development Project and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project are planned to be supported as stand-alone R&D projects, applying criteria such as revenue classification, restrictions on simultaneous execution, and the implementation of a graduation system.

Startup Growth Technology Development is provided to companies that have been established for 7 years or less and have annual sales of less than 2 billion won in the previous year, while the Small and Medium Enterprise Technology Innovation Development Project is provided to companies with annual sales of 2 billion won or more.

First, the number of new projects that small and medium-sized enterprises can apply for and carry out as lead organizations will be limited to a maximum of two, the same as before, but collaborative and policy-oriented R&D will be encouraged by limiting them to a maximum of one independent R&D project.

In addition, the plan is to prevent companies with stagnant innovation from relying on government subsidies by applying a graduation system to standalone R&D projects, which restricts applications after receiving benefits a total of four times.

Finally, stand-alone R&D restricts reverse project support for detailed projects in principle, thereby encouraging bottom-up R&D support that guides SMEs' innovation capabilities from initial to leap to maturity.

The graduation system and reverse support restrictions do not apply retroactively to past support history and will be applied starting from the 2020 support status.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will provide a total of 117.9 billion won through standalone R&D projects, focusing support on the 4th Industrial Revolution (52.3 billion won), materials, parts and equipment (25 billion won), and the BIG3 sectors (30.6 billion won), including system semiconductors, future automobiles, and bio-health.

In the materials, parts, and equipment sector, the plan is to enhance the technology development and commercialization performance of SMEs by providing a package of support through inter-ministerial collaboration, combining the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Technology Development Funds' and the Korean Intellectual Property Office's 'IP-R&D Strategy Consulting.'

Detailed information on the Startup Growth Technology Development Project and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project can be found through the SME Technology Development Project Comprehensive Management System .

Starting from the 19th, we plan to provide video introductions to the project and instructions on how to write business plans through the website, and receive real-time Q&A to support small and medium-sized enterprises wishing to develop technology so that they can smoothly apply for projects.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, materials, parts and equipment, and BIG3 sectors, which are the focus of support through SME R&D projects, can be found in the SME Strategic Technology Roadmap.

Detailed information on the strategic fields and items of the SME Technology Roadmap can be found on the SME Technology Roadmap website..