Growing Regional New Industries through Industry-Academia-Research Joint Research Corporations

Three Projects Selected for the 2020 Public Research Outcomes-Based BIG Leading Model

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The Ministry of Science and ICT has selected three new projects for the 2020 Public Research Performance-Based BIG Leading Model Construction Project. This project is designed to discover public research achievements linked to new regional industries and support follow-up research and development and commercialization of technology startup corporations (industry-academia-research joint research corporations) established based on these achievements. In particular, it supports the promotion, investment attraction, derivative startups, and overseas expansion activities of startup corporations through science and technology cooperatives.

The three selected corporations will receive up to 1.2 billion KRW annually for up to four years (1 billion KRW for the corporation and 200 million KRW for the cooperative). The Chungbuk National University industry-academia-research joint research corporation was selected for the BIG Leading Model project with the plan to develop and commercialize ultra-hard coating technology for semiconductor parts that can omit the plating process, linked to the system semiconductor industry in Chungbuk Province. The Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute industry-academia-research joint research corporation was also chosen for the project "Commercialization of AI standard process (platform) supporting AI-based automation and real-time data processing structure (pipeline)." The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology industry-academia-research joint research corporation will promote the development and commercialization of a "carbon dioxide emission reduction device and hydrogen/electricity production system" to address climate change caused by carbon dioxide.

Kwon Seok-min, Innovation Officer for Science and Technology Jobs at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "It is expected that future innovative industry success models will be created through the linkage of 'industry-academia-research joint research corporations,' which combine public and private capabilities, with regional strategic industries."