98 Teams Apply for 'Silheomshil Startup'

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 24th the '2020 Public Technology-Based Market-Linked Startup Exploration Support Project Implementation Plan' to further expand the achievements of laboratory startups.

This year, to encourage participation from STEM talents, the support target was expanded from STEM university (graduate) students to include postdoctoral researchers (Post-Doc) and researchers at government-funded research institutes. The support scale was also increased from 70 teams to 98 teams. New startup incubation centers were established in the Honam and Southeast regions to address regional disparities. Reflecting the diverse educational needs of startup teams, new domestic education-type and overseas specialized startup exploration training programs will also be promoted.

Since 2015, the government has been promoting a startup exploration education program in collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to support young researchers who wish to start a business based on university or government-funded research outcomes by helping them improve their business models. Over the past four years, 161 startup teams have been supported, resulting in the establishment of 82 (51%) startup companies.

For more details, please visit the Ministry of Science and ICT or the Korea Research Foundation websites.