'Smart City Innovation Technology' Contest to Solve Urban Problems... 20 Billion KRW Support

Smart Village in Busan Eco Delta City (EDC), the National Pilot Smart City [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 17th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it will provide 20 billion KRW in funding to discover creative smart city innovation technologies that can solve urban problems.

Since 2018, the Ministry has been promoting the Smart Challenge project to solve urban problems through the introduction of smart solutions. Currently, over 240 smart city services are being demonstrated in 64 cities nationwide.

This year’s newly launched innovation technology discovery project involves citizens as demanders of smart solutions and companies and universities as suppliers from the project planning stage to ensure the stable introduction of smart city services.

The existing Smart Challenge project was based on plans tailored to the demands of local governments, which was somewhat insufficient for freely discovering innovative and creative services or technologies from companies and universities.

The innovation technology discovery project will be promoted in two forms: company-led, targeting companies, universities, and organizations possessing innovative technologies, and citizen-led living lab type, where citizens lead to solve local urban problems.

The company-led type will select 10 projects, supporting up to 1.5 billion KRW per project, and the citizen-led living lab type will select 5 projects, supporting up to 1 billion KRW per project. The total funding amount is 20 billion KRW.

Project proposals will be accepted from March 3 to 8, with the final selection of supported projects planned for the end of March.

Excellent technologies discovered through the project will be supported to receive benefits such as designation as innovative products, and consulting from specialized institutions will also be provided during the process.

After technology selection, agreements will be signed among the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, project operators, and local governments, and the project will immediately commence with a one-year solution demonstration.

The Ministry explained, "It is expected that the internalization of the smart city expansion project through the discovery of excellent solutions and the commercialization of innovative technologies will be achieved."