Ministry of Science and ICT Confirms Total Budget of 1.445 Trillion Won for Regional Innovation Leading Company Development Project

Two Projects, Including the CCU Mega Project, Selected for Preliminary Feasibility Study

The total project cost for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Regional Innovation Leading Enterprise Development Project,' which was exempted from preliminary feasibility study last August as a representative regional SME research and development project, has been confirmed at 1.045 trillion KRW. The project duration is five years.

On the 24th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the '2025 1st National R&D Project Evaluation General Committee' chaired by Ryu Gwang-jun, Director of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, and announced the results of the appropriateness review for this project and the selection of the '2024 4th National R&D Project Preliminary Feasibility Study Targets.'

Ryu Gwang-jun, Director General of the Science and Technology Innovation Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, is delivering a greeting. Photo by the Ministry of Science and ICT

The 'Regional Innovation Leading Enterprise Development Project' is a representative regional SME R&D project succeeding the previous 'Regional Specialized Industry Development (2013?2019)' and 'Regional Specialized Industry Development+ (2020?2025)' projects.

While maintaining the purpose of the preceding projects, the project structure will be advanced to maximize outcomes by reorganizing the classification system of regional key industries to align with national strategic technologies in accordance with recent R&D innovation policy directions, introducing a competition system among regions, and providing differentiated support to excellent companies with high innovation and growth potential.

Starting from the 31st, 111 tasks (21.56 billion KRW, 400 million to 1.4 billion KRW per task, 2 years) related to building regional key industry ecosystems and strengthening regional capabilities will be announced and companies will be selected.

The '2024 4th National R&D Project Preliminary Feasibility Study Targets' include the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) Mega Project' and the 'Core Fundamental Technology Development Project for General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AGI) for Understanding and Applying the Real World.'

The 'Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) Mega Project' is a project to demonstrate and commercialize CCU technology for industries with high greenhouse gas emissions in preparation for carbon neutrality, and the 'Core Fundamental Technology Development Project for General-Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AGI) for Understanding and Applying the Real World' is a project to research and secure the world's first and highest-level core fundamental technologies to achieve AGI phase 2 by 2032.

Ryu Gwang-jun, Director of the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters, stated, "The Regional Innovation Leading Enterprise Development Project will be continuously managed to balance the two principles of regional balanced development and competitive, differentiated support to maximize project outcomes. The two projects selected for preliminary feasibility study will be promptly investigated to ensure timely progress, and the entire project will be thoroughly reviewed to ensure that investments lead to the best possible results."