More and more companies are cutting back on R&D investment and new hiring
To maintain R&D personnel recruitment for small and medium-sized enterprises
Support for 400 research projects worth 50 million won per year


On the 9th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it will launch a new project called the '2020 Employment Crisis Corporate Research Institute R&D Professional Utilization Support' to support R&D activities of small and medium-sized enterprises suffering from COVID-19.

According to the analysis of the 1st and 2nd surveys on corporate R&D activities related to COVID-19 conducted by the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Association, the percentage of companies considering reducing R&D investment (47.7% (March) → 58.0% (May)) and reducing new hiring (41.3% (March) → 51.5% (May)) due to the spread of COVID-19 continues to increase.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it has secured a supplementary budget (passed by the National Assembly on July 3) and plans to support R&D activities of companies facing employment crises through swift execution.

Through this project, the Ministry of Science and ICT will support 400 basic research projects (KRW 50 million per project per year) for small and medium-sized enterprises that are having difficulty maintaining R&D activities due to the management crisis caused by COVID-19 to maintain R&D investment and employment of key personnel.

This project is in line with the inter-ministerial measures (4th Emergency Economic Council, 4.8) to support corporate R&D activities, and includes measures to ease the burden of R&D on companies in management crisis, such as easing the burden on participating companies and including existing personnel expenses in government subsidy support targets. Measures, etc. were reflected.

In addition, we plan to support research topics required by companies and bring forward the execution time as much as possible to provide prompt support to companies in management crisis. Participating companies must also maintain employment of participating personnel during the project execution period.

Yong Hong-taek, director of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s R&D Policy Bureau, said, “The prolonged COVID-19 situation is exacerbating the difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises with vulnerable infrastructure,” and added, “We expect that this project will help small and medium-sized enterprises overcome the COVID-19 crisis, maintain R&D activities, secure technological competitiveness, and provide an environment where key research personnel can focus on corporate R&D activities.”

The Ministry of Science and ICT conducted a preliminary notice (June 19) for this project to help applicant companies prepare in advance, and announced the project on the 8th of this month. Detailed announcements can be found on the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT (www.msit.go.kr) and the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Association (www.koita.or.kr).