Expansion of Startup Growth and Technology Innovation R&D Support... 1.4885 Trillion Won Invested This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 16th that it will accept applications for the Startup Growth Technology Development Project and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project for the first half of 2020.

These projects will be promoted with a budget of 1.4885 trillion KRW this year. Among this, in the first half of the year, 85.7 billion KRW (excluding TIPS projects) and 88.8 billion KRW will be supported for the Startup Growth Technology Development Project and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project, respectively. Applications for the first half projects will be accepted starting from the 17th.

Along with the budget increase, to actively support SMEs with innovative capabilities, the support system has been expanded from the existing short-term small-amount centered system to provide support for up to more than 3 years and up to 2 billion KRW.

In addition, the R&D support system has been reorganized to allow strategic support tailored to the innovation capability level of SMEs by differentiating the technology development period and scale for each project.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups classifies R&D into ▲single-type led by companies ▲industry-academia-research cooperation type ▲policy-purpose type reflecting policy needs. Among these, the Startup Growth Technology Development Project and the SME Technology Innovation Development Project will be strategically supported as single-type R&D by applying distinctions such as sales amount classification, simultaneous execution restrictions, and graduation system implementation.

The Startup Growth Technology Development Project targets companies established within 7 years and with sales under 2 billion KRW in the previous year. The SME Technology Innovation Development Project supports companies with sales of 2 billion KRW or more, strengthening differentiation between single-type R&D projects.

The number of new projects that SMEs can apply for and execute as the lead institution remains limited to a maximum of two, the same as before. Only one single-type R&D project can be conducted at most, encouraging cooperation-type and policy-purpose R&D projects.

The single-type R&D applies a graduation system that restricts project applications after a total of four benefits, aiming to block prolonged government funding for innovation-stagnant companies. This induces bottom-up R&D support for SMEs’ innovation capabilities from initial → leap → maturity stages.

Through single-type R&D projects, a total of 117.9 billion KRW will be concentratedly supported in the fields of the 4th Industrial Revolution (52.3 billion KRW), materials-parts-equipment (25 billion KRW), and system semiconductors-future automobiles-biohealth (30.6 billion KRW).

Won Young-jun, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We have allocated the largest budget ever to support technological innovation of SMEs and expanded the support scale per project," adding, "We expect the realization of a smart Korea through focused support in the three new industry fields of the 4th Industrial Revolution, materials-parts-equipment, and future-leading industries."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.