The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) said they will recruit corporations to participate in the "2026 carbon reduction R&D for core export items of SMEs" project from May 13 to 27.
The project is intended to respond to the European Union's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and other strengthened global carbon regulations. It will support carbon-reduction technology development and on-site demonstration, focusing on carbon-intensive export items such as steel and aluminum.
CBAM is a system that imposes an expense equivalent to the amount of carbon emitted during the production of products exported to the EU. It will be fully implemented starting this year, and major countries are introducing or strengthening similar regulations. As a result, the burden on SMEs included in supply chains is expected to grow.
The project focuses on enhancing SMEs' ability to respond to carbon regulations and maintaining export competitiveness. Alongside carbon-reduction technology development, it also supports application and verification in actual production sites.
Those eligible for support are a consortium consisting of: ▲ SMEs developing carbon-reduction technologies ▲ export SMEs (two or more corporations) that can apply the technologies ▲ universities and research institutes participating as needed. Selection will be made through a designated call.
Priority support areas are three: ▲ substitution of combustion fuels and feedstocks ▲ unit process improvement and power reduction ▲ commercialization of raw material and component reuse. A total of 26 detailed tasks will be invited.
Eighteen tasks will be selected through evaluation, and up to 5.5 billion won per task will be supported for three to five years. In addition to research and development, on-site demonstration and verification of reduction effects are included.
The overall project period runs from this year to 2030. The total project budget is 99.4 billion won, of which 74.6 billion won is from the national budget. This year's budget is 5 billion won.
Corporations wishing to participate can apply online through the Integrated Research Information System (IRIS). Details are available on the websites of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA).