The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 6th it will invest a total of 280 billion won over two years to boost the competitiveness of small and midsize corporations outside the greater Seoul area.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to select 306 new projects through the "Regional innovation leading corporations fostering (R&D)" program. The plan is to lay the groundwork for regional economic growth by focusing on flagship industries with high shares of sales and employment in the region.
The program is divided into "building a flagship industry ecosystem," an industry-academia-research collaboration with participation from Pohang University of Science and Technology and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), and "regional corporations capacity building," which supports individual corporations. A total of 157 and 149 projects were selected, respectively.
This year, the application criteria—previously limited to corporations with annual sales of at least 10 billion won—were eased to allow participation by corporations with a research and development investment ratio of 5% or more. Even if sales are still low, corporations can join the program if they have the capacity and determination for research and development.
Thanks to the expanded opportunity to participate, the number of applications reached 738, about 2.7 times more than a year earlier. Fairness in evaluation was also improved by adopting evaluations by technology field and introducing standard scores.
Applications were evenly distributed across regional flagship industries such as manufacturing, mobility, bio, and energy. Manufacturing was highest at 25.9%, followed by mobility at 24.0%, bio at 22.6%, and energy at 20.7%.
Defense space and content also accounted for 5.4% and 1.8%, respectively. The program expanded not only to manufacturing-based industries but also to future new industries.
Excluding the bio field, the average research and development intensity of the finally selected corporations was tallied at 11.7%. Bio averaged 40.7%.
By switching in-person evaluations to online, the time and expense burdens on corporations were reduced. Linked with the SME innovation vouchers that support hiring technical personnel, the plan is to back corporations so they can carry out research and development efficiently.
An official at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "Through this program, we will strengthen the technological competitiveness of regional small and midsize corporations and build a foundation for sustainable regional economic growth based on an innovation ecosystem centered on flagship industries."