[Untangling Issues]⑤ Don’t They Rent Equipment When Closed at Night or on Holidays?

The government partially supports equipment usage fees so that small and medium-sized enterprises can rent and utilize expensive research and experimental equipment owned by universities and research institutions.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa]# Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) Company A has been borrowing equipment from a government-affiliated research institute for research and development purposes. However, when the research institute, which used to lend equipment until 10 p.m., shortened the lending hours to 8 p.m. due to staff shortages and other reasons, Company A filed a complaint as it had to halt operations for two hours without the equipment.

The government allows SMEs to borrow and utilize some high-cost research and experimental equipment jointly with universities and research institutes. Among the 2,915 pieces of equipment registered in the government's 'Research Equipment Utilization Comprehensive Management System (ZEUS)'?including those owned by universities, research institutes, and non-profit organizations?the government supports part of the equipment usage fees and specialized personnel costs to enable SMEs to borrow and use the equipment.

The government subsidized 60-70% of the equipment usage fees, with the remaining costs borne by the companies, providing a total of 12.5 billion KRW last year, with a maximum limit of 70 million KRW per company. The problem was irregular working hours. Some participating companies had to use equipment during nighttime hours due to unavoidable night shifts, but most research institutes limited equipment usage to working hours (09:00?18:00).

The research institute from which Company A borrowed equipment allowed two more hours of operation compared to other institutions, which was relatively favorable. However, from Company A’s perspective, reducing working hours by two hours was unacceptable due to inevitable disruptions in the production process. Nevertheless, the research institute had no choice but to reduce equipment lending hours due to staff reductions and restructuring.

Accordingly, the SME Ombudsman requested the responsible ministry to establish guidelines on research equipment usage hours to allow participating companies to use research equipment during nighttime (until 10 p.m.) depending on their industry. However, the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA), the responsible ministry, responded with a refusal.

The SMBA stated that the 164 universities and research institutes participating in the project have different operating conditions regarding equipment and personnel, so equipment usage outside working hours is left to each institution’s discretion.

An SMBA official said, "Regarding equipment use outside working hours, each institution makes autonomous decisions considering personnel, facilities, and budget conditions, or proceeds based on separate agreements with participating companies," adding, "Establishing separate guidelines to allow equipment use at night could become another regulation that disregards the institutions' circumstances."

The SME Ombudsman negotiated with the responsible ministry to provide incentives to operating institutions participating in nighttime lending. An official from the SME Ombudsman explained, "The government increased the research infrastructure utilization promotion fee (incentive) paid separately to operating institutions from 10% to 15% of the equipment usage fee to encourage universities and research institutes to actively participate in registering and providing research equipment services."

The official added, "In March, we revised the management guidelines for the research infrastructure utilization project under the SME Technology Innovation Promotion Act in consultation with the responsible ministry," and "This has alleviated the inconvenience of SMEs wishing to use research equipment at night, enabling more efficient research and development."

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