The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will introduce a financial support system to back the commercialization of national research and development (R&D)成果. The aim is to speed up on-site application of research and development outcomes.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said on the 20th that the Cabinet approved a promulgation plan for a partial amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Technology Innovation for Small and Medium Enterprises that creates a new financial support system for commercializing national research and development成果.
Until now, small and medium-sized enterprises have found it difficult to raise funds because there was no clear legal basis for financial support in the process of commercializing their own research and development成果 or technology transferred from public research institutes. In fact, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS)'s 2025 Small and Medium Enterprise Technology Statistics Survey Report, demand for commercialization funds was the highest at 30.2% among support policies needed for technology commercialization.
The amendment expands financial support recipients to include public research institutes as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. To reduce the funding burden that arises as national research and development成果 move into the market and industrial sites, it also introduces new commercialization guarantee and securitization guarantee systems.
Eligible recipients are small and medium-sized enterprises that commercialize completed national research and development projects or promote commercialization after receiving a transfer of public research institute technology. Separate from existing policy guarantee limits, new limits are set to broaden corporations' opportunities to raise funds.
The commercialization guarantee is operated by evaluating business performance units rather than the entire corporation. After a technology transfer, it calculates the funds needed for commercialization and provides guarantees of up to 10 billion won.
The securitization guarantee primarily evaluates not only current sales but also the future commercialization potential and value of the technology. Based on this, it supports the purchase of corporate bonds from corporations or royalty receivables from public research institutes and their sale in the market so that the funds raised can be used as corporate commercialization funds or as royalty resources for public research institutes.
The amendment takes effect today. The scale is 260 billion won for commercialization guarantees and 80 billion won for securitization guarantees, totaling 340 billion won.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to push for a revision of the enforcement decree, including detailed criteria, to respond to on-site demand. Hwang Young-ho, director general for technology innovation policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "With this amendment, excellent technology development成果 will not be left to languish but will lead to corporate growth and revenue generation and then be reinvested in technology development, creating a virtuous cycle that will further enhance the utilization and efficiency of national research and development成果."