Officials from advanced technology corporations pointed out that the gap between the research and development period and government support period, along with a rigid regulatory system, are obstacles to corporate growth.
Vice Minister Gu Hyuk-chae of the Ministry of Science and ICT visited the JINCORE Seoul Research Institute located at Catholic University's Omnibus Park on the 14th and discussed the difficulties faced by stakeholders in the innovation startup ecosystem and policy directions.
During the meeting that day, various opinions were exchanged regarding support for startup corporations, corporate research and development (R&D), public procurement, public funding for startups, venture investments, and technology commercialization.
Kim Do-yeon, the head of the JINCORE, co-founded the company and stated, "Typically, the development period for advanced technology takes 5 to 7 years, but the support period is only 1 year or less, making continuous development difficult." JINCORE, a startup founded by a researcher from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), has been developing gene therapy based on ultra-small gene scissors technology since its founding in 2019.
Kim noted, "In the case of advanced technology in Korea, approval is only possible within regulatory or guideline frameworks, which takes a long time to apply new testing methods. In contrast, in China, most things can be attempted except for what is prohibited in the guidelines, resulting in significantly lower entry barriers than in Korea."
Park Min-seob, the chief development officer of Curiosis, which develops research and diagnostic equipment in the life sciences sector, stated, "We deal with a lot of high-tech technologies that require initial localization, but universities, research institutes, and small hospitals are hesitant to adopt them due to initial expense burdens," and added, "If the government provides subsidies or matching funds to support new products developed by corporate research institutes when they are purchased by universities, research institutes, or small hospitals, it would play a pivotal role."
Hong Jun-ki, the chief technology officer (CTO) of Aesleep, an AI-based sleep technology corporation, remarked, "Currently, support in the AI sector is heavily focused on establishing basic competitiveness for large language models (LLM)," and noted, "If support and investments are significantly focused on vertical AI tailored to data collection or the medical and bio sectors, we could create areas where only Korea excels."
Um Yun-seol, the representative of AeiROBOT, stated, "For startups, the essentials are capital, personnel, and space, with securing personnel being the most urgent," adding, "Even for university-based companies like AeiROBOT, graduates tend to go to larger corporations."
Vice Minister Gu Hyuk-chae stated, "Following the digital bio strategy two years ago, we are preparing an AI bio strategy this year to develop excellent AI models specialized in healthcare, bio, and life data," and noted, "We are preparing a comprehensive national AI bio strategy. There are also plans to proceed sector by sector, including materials and energy." He added, "We will diversify the policies for the dissemination of public research results and build a sustainable R&D innovation ecosystem through close communication with the field."