The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and Daejeon Metropolitan City are taking the first step toward promoting cutting-edge technology startups and scientific culture.

On the 28th, ETRI signed a ‘Business Agreement for the Creation and Operation of Majungmul Plaza’ with Daejeon Metropolitan City.

'Majungmul Plaza' is a joint research space where companies and government-funded research institutes come together to promote free technological entrepreneurship and collaboration.

It has a total floor area of 8,782㎡, 1 basement floor, and 4 above-ground floors, and is scheduled for completion in 2024.

This project, which is being promoted as part of the Daejeon Metropolitan City Daedeok Special Zone Creation Project, was initiated based on the awareness of the problem that although science and technology fields in industry, academia, research, and government are all gathered in Daejeon City, they are physically and institutionally separated, which does not lead to sufficient collaboration and synergy effects.

To solve these problems, Majungmul Plaza is a ‘Laboratory Startup Innovation Complex’ promoted by Daejeon Metropolitan City.; It is the first case of its kind to be built nationwide.

The Majungmul Plaza is built and operated as an advanced base for free technology entrepreneurship centered around the ‘Linking Lab’ where entrepreneurs and researchers collaborate to carry out everything from business planning to successful commercialization.

It is intended to connect researchers, young entrepreneurs, businesses, and local communities in one physical space, and serve as a 'stepping stone' for convergence and complex collaboration for commercialization of ETRI researchers' know-how and technology.

The plan is to jointly utilize expensive ICT equipment to increase the possibility of commercialization success and to serve as a verification test bed, thereby providing support for performance testing, quality measurement, and reliability testing that were not easy for small and medium-sized enterprises, thereby establishing a priority application testing site for various businesses and verifying them.

In addition, ETRI plans to make Daejeon, the Science City, a “Science Jam City” (a city that provides fun with science) by making the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Experience Center a permanent facility and providing a venue for citizens to experience, exhibit, and learn about information and communications technology (ICT).

Through the signing of a business cooperation agreement, the two organizations confirmed specific details for the creation and operation of the Maejungmul Plaza, including: △sharing of project costs (national budget 15 billion won/Daejeon city budget 15 billion won/ETRI 900 million won (in kind)), △establishment of a management and operation committee for the creation project and post-completion operation, △active cooperation in operation projects, etc., and △operation methods.

Daejeon Mayor Heo Tae-jeong said, “As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Daedeok Special Zone in 2023, we expect this to serve as a base where industry, academia, research, the public and private sectors will work together to create synergy in achieving results at a time when a digital transformation for a leap forward is needed.” He added, “Together with ETRI, we will successfully lead the Daedeok Special Zone’s re-creation pilot project to not only establish Daejeon as a science capital but also lead the Republic of Korea to stand tall as a global technology powerhouse.”dquo; he said.

ETRI President Myung-Jun Kim also said, “We will successfully create Majungmul Plaza, an incubator for the joint growth of researchers and companies, as well as a science and technology culture and education space, by leveraging the know-how from our successful establishment and operation of the Convergence Technology Research and Production Center.”