[2020 National Audit] Industry-Academia R&D Funding Halved in 5 Years... Sharp Decline in Knowledge Transfer Ranking

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups' industry-academia R&D research support funding has sharply decreased to about half (57%) over the past five years.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Shin Jeong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, as of August this year, the Ministry's industry-academia R&D research support funding was 23.8 billion KRW. The annual research support funding was 93.8 billion KRW in 2015, 91.2 billion KRW in 2016, 79.8 billion KRW in 2017, 78.7 billion KRW in 2018, and 53.6 billion KRW in 2019.

The number of projects also decreased. The number of projects was 1,579 in 2015, 1,440 in 2016, 1,426 in 2017, 1,685 in 2018, 943 in 2019, and 421 as of August 2020.

The decrease in research support funding and project numbers led to a decline in Korea's ranking in knowledge transfer between industry and academia by country. Korea's ranking in industry-academia knowledge transfer was 6th in 2015 but fell to 35th last year.

Assemblyman Shin said, "Industry-academia cooperation R&D provides SMEs with opportunities to utilize networks for new technology development, activates the acquisition of technological assets, and above all, serves as a stepping stone for growth through enhancing technological capabilities." He added, "I urge the government to recognize the importance of industry-academia cooperation R&D at the national level and to accelerate investment expansion."

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