"Let's Find the 21st Century Alchemists"... Ministry of Industry Supports Innovation Technology Development with 11.8 Billion KRW Funding

Announcement of the 2020 Alchemist Project Promotion Plan on the 29th
Introduction of Tournament-Style Concept Research...Support for 60 Tasks Across 10 Themes
Launch of the 2nd Grand Challenge Committee with 16 Experts in Technology and Humanities

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 29th its plan to promote the 'Alchemist Project,' aimed at expanding challenging and innovative research. The Alchemist Project refers to tasks that support the development of disruptive and innovative technologies, breaking away from the existing research and development (R&D) framework that is conditional on success.

This year, about 60 tasks under 10 themes will be selected and supported with 11.8 billion KRW. The overall framework of the Alchemist project method consists of competitive research, mid- to long-term and large-scale support, and the project will be promoted in a way that discovers more challenging and creative ideas.

The 'Grand Challenge Committee 2nd term,' which discovers themes, makes the final selection of tasks, and serves as an advisory group throughout the year, is composed of 16 experts from various fields including industry, academia, and research (10 in technology fields and 6 in humanities), with Vice President Min Dong-jun of Yonsei University serving as chairman.

Unlike the first committee, which was composed solely of technology experts, the second committee has been strengthened with humanities fields such as science fiction (SF), futurism, and sociology to derive diverse and new ideas such as the future vision our society dreams of and convergent technologies.

This year, the Grand Challenge Committee will only discover and finalize themes, and participants will directly plan and propose detailed tasks for each theme.

Last year, the committee finalized candidate tasks and announced them, but this year, the committee will not directly announce task contents, allowing anyone to propose their ideas as tasks so that fresh ideas can be discovered as tasks.

The committee comprehensively reviewed the nationwide idea contest, technology expert demand surveys, and future technology literature analysis conducted since the end of last year, deriving a total of 10 themes and plans to support about 6 tasks per theme.

Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Task performers will carry out tasks in three stages: 'concept research, preliminary research, and main research.' Concept research aims to strengthen the concreteness of ideas and solidify conceptual designs that can realize challenging technologies.

Concept research and preliminary research apply a 'tournament-style research and development (R&D)' method by selecting and supporting multiple institutions, and the third stage, main research, evaluates the research outcomes of the preliminary research and selects the institution with the best evaluation results as the final third-stage performer.

Kim Yong-rae, Director of Industrial Innovation Growth at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "The Alchemist Project is the beginning of innovation that will change the paradigm of industry and open a new future," adding, "We will continue to actively support bold and creative challenges by researchers and enhance our mid- to long-term technological capabilities."

Meanwhile, the Grand Challenge Committee plans to derive theme candidates through intensive discussions by February based on research results conducted since last year to discover themes.

After holding a public hearing on the derived theme candidates and finalizing the themes, the confirmed themes will be announced in March, and task demands will be received and evaluated to select the final supported tasks.