Gyeonggi-do Supports Usage Fees for SMEs' 'Shared Research Equipment'

Gyeonggi Province is promoting the ‘Shared Research Equipment Usage Fee Support Project’ for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the province.

Gyeonggi Province currently provides information on 1,585 high-cost research equipment owned by 42 host institutions such as research institutes and universities within the province, allowing companies to jointly use the equipment for research and development through the ‘Gyeonggi Research Equipment Shared Usage Platform’ (gginfra.gbsa.or.kr).

This year, Gyeonggi Province will maintain the same support scale as last year (70-100% of equipment usage fees, up to 4 million KRW), but will adopt a method of accepting applications twice from companies that actively use the equipment and providing usage fee support accordingly. The plan is to enhance convenience for companies and support usage fees on a first-come, first-served basis for companies that actively utilize the research equipment.

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

The support target is SMEs as defined in Article 2 of the ‘Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises’ that wish to use research equipment on the platform, provided they have at least one headquarters, research institute, or factory located in Gyeonggi Province.

Registered research equipment can be checked on the Gyeonggi Research Equipment Shared Usage Platform.

Um Gi-man, Director of the Bio Industry Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We will continuously strive to ensure that SMEs dreaming of innovative growth do not face difficulties due to the high cost of research equipment and lack of equipment operation experts, by utilizing the Research Equipment Shared Usage Platform to provide practical assistance."