Ministry of SMEs and Startups Provides Interest Rate Reduction Support to SMEs with Outstanding R&D Achievements

Call for Entries: "Top 50 Outstanding R&D Achievements of Small and Medium Enterprises"

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is recruiting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have achieved excellent results in research and development (R&D).

The Ministry announced on the 11th that it will publicly recruit participating companies for the ‘Top 50 SME R&D Achievements’ from the 14th until July 15.

The ‘Top 50 SME R&D Achievements’ is a project that started last year as a follow-up measure to the ‘SME R&D System Innovation Plan’ and is being conducted for the second time this year.

They plan to select companies in four categories: companies that have achieved economic and technological results such as increased sales through SME R&D; companies with stories of overcoming management crises through excellent technological capabilities; companies with outstanding achievements contributing to solving public and social issues; and companies with high social contribution.

Eligibility requirements include SMEs that have successfully completed or are currently conducting SME R&D under the Ministry’s jurisdiction within the last five years and have demonstrated outstanding results.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will provide various support benefits to all companies participating in this recruitment.

First, all companies selected for the Top 50 Achievements will be awarded the Minister of SMEs and Startups Commendation, and to support continuous achievement creation by the selected companies, dedicated bank low-interest commercialization funds and policy fund interest rate reductions (2%P↓) will be provided.

For companies wishing to expand overseas, support will be provided for participation in major overseas exhibitions and conferences, preferential points when participating in research personnel support projects, support for entry into the Industrial Bank of Korea’s job portal, and preferential treatment for participation in follow-up R&D, among various other benefits.

Last year, despite being the first implementation, the SME R&D Excellent Achievements attracted participation from 170 companies that showed excellent results through the SME technology development project, with a competition rate of 3.4 to 1.

H Energy, selected last year, has shown high growth, with sales in 2023 increasing by 53.1 billion KRW, or 238.1%, compared to the previous year, based on achievements through the Startup Growth Technology Development Project.

Collie, a TIPS-performing company that showed high growth, participated in a dedicated bank investment briefing for excellent companies last December and recently secured an investment of 2 billion KRW from Hana Ventures.

Kim Woo-sun, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “We will continue to provide policy support so that innovative companies can commercialize excellent technologies based on achievements created through SME R&D and further leap into global companies by pioneering overseas markets.”