SMEs Ministry Urges Startups to Apply for R&D Support

Notice for Recruitment of New Projects for Startup Growth - Leap R&D

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on April 29 that it is accepting applications from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) wishing to participate in the "2025 Startup Growth Technology Development Project - Leap R&D." This initiative supports "Leap R&D" to enhance sustainability and market competitiveness, based on the initial achievements of startup companies. SMEs with less than seven years of business history and annual sales of less than 2 billion KRW as of the application deadline, May 30, are eligible to participate.

Notably, starting this year, the maximum support per project has been increased to 200 million KRW for up to 1.5 years in order to further strengthen the achievement of results by startups. In addition to follow-up R&D support for companies identified through the ministry's startup commercialization program, the Super Gap Startup 1000+ Project, and the public-private partnership open innovation platform, a new "inter-ministerial cooperation" track has been added. This new track provides follow-up R&D support for technologies discovered through the "Innopolis Campus Project" in collaboration with the Research and Development Special Zone Foundation under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Furthermore, as in the previous year, the ministry will continue to support various detailed tracks, including global R&D, materials·parts·equipment sectors, and R&D for promoting women's participation.

Park Yongsoon, Director General for Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "We hope to strengthen technological innovation through R&D and to further support the growth of startups through inter-ministerial cooperation."