Lower than industrial R&D agencies KIAT and KEIT

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that the commercialization performance of research and development (R&D) projects at energy research institutes under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy significantly lags behind that of industrial research institutes.

According to the 'Commercialization Status of Completed Projects in the Last 5 Years (2014?2018)' submitted by research institutes under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to Lee Seongman, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the average commercialization success rate of the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) over five years was only 31.9%.

The Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) recorded 60.2%, and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) recorded 44.9%. This means that among the three research institutes, KETEP's commercialization performance was the lowest.

Not only the commercialization success rate but also the number of projects targeted for commercialization was lower than other research institutes. KETEP conducted 951 projects targeted for commercialization over the past five years and commercialized 303 of them. KIAT commercialized 2,640 out of 4,386 projects, and KEIT commercialized 1,156 out of 2,572 projects, respectively.

Source: Office of Lee Sung-man, Democratic Party of Korea

Looking at the types of projects that succeeded in commercialization in the energy sector over the past five years, there were 98 projects in energy demand management, 96 in new and renewable energy, 35 in energy resources, 31 in smart grids, 27 in nuclear power, 4 in energy safety, 11 in clean thermal power, 1 in energy storage, and 0 in radioactive waste.

Energy storage projects started with 14 projects in 2018 but only one was successfully commercialized. Radioactive waste projects numbered 11 over the past five years, but there were no successful cases of commercialization.

This indicates poor R&D commercialization performance in the radioactive waste sector, which supports the government's nuclear phase-out policy, and in the energy storage sector, which is necessary for expanding eco-friendly energy policies.

Among nuclear power projects, 27 out of 118 were commercialized, with a success rate of about 22.9%.

Assemblyman Lee said, "While expanding the R&D budget and increasing project execution rates are important, raising the commercialization and market success rates remains a challenge," adding, "From the early stages of planning R&D projects, it is necessary to confirm demand and collaborate with related companies to create plans that consider commercialization."

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