The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 23rd it will announce the first-phase implementation plan for global cooperative research and development (R&D) for 2026. The program provides up to 1.5 billion won over three years to enable global research institutes and domestic small and venture corporations to jointly conduct research and development. Domestic corporations can strengthen their technological capabilities and lay the groundwork for overseas expansion.
According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), this year's program totals 43.3 billion won and will support 157 research and development projects. Global research institutes expanded from two last year to 11 this year. The University of Toronto in Canada, Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and Fraunhofer in Germany are representative examples.
The global cooperative research and development types are divided into preliminary research, advance planning, open call, and Eco Bridge. Preliminary research plans researchers and projects by field through industry-academia linkage programs and proceeds with technology transfer and joint research.
For advance planning, proposals were received for 647 collaboration-ready technologies from 11 global research institutes. In this call, candidate corporations will be selected within twice the number of final slots (200). Six months of advance planning research will be conducted, the results will be evaluated, and full research and development support will be provided to the final 100 corporations.
In the open call, corporations conduct joint research with overseas research institutes they identify on their own. Eco Bridge enables research and development projects in collaboration with leading overseas pharmaceutical companies, including discovery of new drug candidates, nonclinical, and clinical stages.
Applications for the first call can be submitted from Apr. 6 to Apr. 24 through the pan-ministerial integrated research support system (www.iris.go.kr). A second call will be added next month. Hwang Young-ho, director general for Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said it is "an opportunity for domestic small and venture corporations to secure technological competitiveness with world-class research institutes."