The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Moon Seung-wook) is embarking on full-scale support for market-oriented technology commercialization R&D.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 8th that it will be launching a new "Scale-up Technology Commercialization Program" and a "Cross-Ministry Technology Commercialization Relay Project" to help companies commercialize their excellent technologies and advance into new industries.

The two projects are being promoted as follow-up projects following the conclusion of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's flagship technology commercialization program, the "Commercialization-Linked Technology Development Project," and are being promoted as the "Scale-up Technology Commercialization Program," which links with private investment, and the "Cross-Ministry Technology Commercialization Relay Project," which commercializes the R&D results of each ministry.

First, the 'Scale-up Technology Commercialization Program' will conduct a preliminary feasibility study in 2020 (total project cost of KRW 192.5 billion, national budget of KRW 132.9 billion) and invest KRW 2.3 billion in 38 projects in 2021. Next, the 'Cross-Ministry Technology Commercialization Relay Project (total project cost of KRW 43.3 billion, national budget of KRW 28.7 billion)' will invest KRW 11.3 billion in 25 projects in 2021.

The 'Scale-up Technology Commercialization Program' is a 1-stageThis is a project that is being promoted in stages, from Phase 1 commercialization consulting to Phase 2 R&D, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has selected 38 manufacturing SMEs as support targets for Phase 1 this year.

Selected companies will receive government commercialization consulting funding (approximately 60 million won) and must complete commercialization planning and attract private investment by the end of the year to advance into new industries such as smart manufacturing and digital healthcare.

During this process, companies can receive support from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) for successful private investment attraction, including 1:1 business consulting, pre-investment attraction training, and investment attraction consultation (IR).

The 'Cross-Ministry Technology Commercialization Support Project' is a project in which the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy supports follow-up commercialization R&D for excellent R&D achievements from each government ministry, thereby increasing the connectivity and efficiency of R&D investment between ministries and promoting the utilization of results.

This project has selected 25 companies for support this year, and the selected companies will receive approximately 450 million won in government subsidies to support follow-up R&D and commercialization planning.

Kim Sang-mo, Director General of Industrial Technology Convergence Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, “Market-oriented commercialization R&D projects are important so that our companies can advance to the next level in the global market.” He added, “We will continue to actively support the ‘Scale-up Technology Commercialization Program,’ which provides package support for business planning consulting, private investment attraction, and R&D, and the ‘Cross-Ministry Technology Commercialization Relay Project,’ which supports each ministry’s R&D results up to the commercialization stage.”