Ministry of Science and ICT and NSF Launch Startup Exploration Education Program
98 science and engineering startup teams scheduled to be supported in 2020
New initiatives for domestic education and overseas specialized types


On the 24th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it has established an implementation plan for the 2020 Public Technology-based Market-Linked Startup Exploration Support Project to promote laboratory startups and will select new recipients of support.

According to a report released by CB Insights in November 2019, the biggest reason for startup failure was a 'market without demand'.

In particular, to increase the success rate of technology startups, it is necessary to verify the market demand and suitability of the technology and to go through a process of supplementing and modifying the business model (BM) (pivoting).

To this end, the Ministry of Science and ICT has been promoting a startup exploration education program since 2015 in conjunction with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support young researchers who wish to start a business based on research results from universities or government-funded research institutes, enabling them to improve their business models based on market research through interviews with potential customers.

Over the four years since 2015, this program supported 161 startup teams, resulting in the establishment of 82 (51%) startups, the creation of 400 jobs (an average of 4.9 per company), and 10.535 billion We succeeded in attracting investment from Won.

Last year, 59 out of 70 startup teams (84.3%) that applied were pivoting their business models or preparing to start a business.

This year, the eligibility criteria were expanded from undergraduate or graduate students in science and engineering to include postdoctoral researchers and researchers at government-funded research institutes, and the number of supported teams was increased from the existing 70 to 98.

Startup incubation centers will be established in the Honam and Southeast regions, which have historically lacked support for startup exploration, to resolve regional disparities. Additionally, new domestic and overseas-specialized startup exploration education programs will be launched to reflect the diverse educational needs of startup teams.

The domestic education type is an entrepreneurship exploration education program that applies the NSF entrepreneurship education methodology and targets startup teams hoping to start a business in Korea. Over the past three years since 2016, a domestic instructor training program has been implemented, training 26 instructors, who are scheduled to participate in this year's domestic education program.

The Overseas Specialized Type is being piloted for the first time this year as a project that supports startup teams hoping to launch or commercialize businesses in the U.S. through startup mentoring programs and market expansion, based on an already established local public technology commercialization network.

The call for proposals runs until the end of March, and selections are made by May. Education and childcare continue until February of the following year after selection. Further details about the project can be found in the project announcements on the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea .