Rapid Increase in 'Fine Dust Reduction' Technology Development Applications... Up to 250 Million KRW Support

Source=Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 15th that the newly launched "Practical Technology Development Project for Fine Dust Reduction" this year recorded a competition rate of 5.3 to 1.

A total of 217 projects were submitted for 41 project recruitments in this initiative. This project focuses on technology development aimed at alleviating public anxiety about fine dust and targeting life-close spaces (small and medium-sized workplaces, living spaces).

Departing from the existing air environment industry centered on large and medium-sized enterprises, up to KRW 250 million per project per year will be supported for practical technology development by SMEs and venture companies. A budget of KRW 10.6 billion is allocated for this year.

Upon successful technology development, support will be provided to facilitate rapid commercialization by linking with policy funds and the Ministry of Environment's "Innovative Equipment Commercialization Support Project," among others.

Among the 217 projects submitted this time, 16 projects (7.4%) related to personal wearable exposure reduction devices (such as masks) and 84 projects (38.7%) related to indoor air purification were received. In particular, many technology development projects addressing public concerns were submitted, including innovative mask filter development to cope with the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation and technologies for long-term use of existing KF94 filters.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to shorten the evaluation period (from 3 months to 2 months) to respond promptly to COVID-19 issues and swiftly provide research and development funds to selected companies by next month. Additionally, to alleviate the burden on companies due to COVID-19, the private contribution ratio will be lowered from the existing 25% to 20%. The cash portion will also be drastically reduced from 60% to 10%, while maximizing corporate autonomy to ensure rapid technology development.

For technology development related to social problem solving, the Ministry plans to incorporate monitoring and feedback on projects through a "National Evaluation Group."

Cha Jeonghun, Director of the Startup and Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "Through this research and development, we will actively support the promotion of technology development activities by SMEs to solve social problems that have a high public impact, and the activation of practical technology development for fine dust reduction in small-scale manufacturing and life-close spaces."

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