Ministry of Science and ICT Opens Public Recruitment for 125 Teams Supporting Laboratory Startups

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 19th that it will promote the "Public Technology-Based Market-Linked Startup Exploration Support Project (Korean-style i-Corps Project)" to revitalize laboratory startups at universities and government-funded research institutes.

Since 2015, the Ministry of Science and ICT has been implementing a startup exploration education program in collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the establishment of business models (BM) through discovering potential customers for startup items.

To this end, starting from the 22nd, over the course of one month, 125 startup exploration teams will be selected across seven regions, including laboratory startup innovation groups (universities) and market exploration education institutions (one domestic and one overseas).

Among the 319 teams that completed the education program by last year, 156 teams (48.9%) established startup companies, creating 716 new jobs (an average of 4.6 jobs per company). Among them, SOS Lab Co., Ltd. attracted a total investment of 16.6 billion KRW (Series A) from investors such as Mirae Asset, while Medino Co., Ltd. and MiDAS Research Institute secured investments of 8 billion KRW and 1.5 billion KRW respectively (Series A), demonstrating successful cases.

This year, seven new laboratory startup innovation groups (universities) and market exploration education institutions (one domestic and one overseas) will be selected to take charge of startup exploration education and incubation for the next five years. To expand market exploration education, which was mainly conducted by laboratory startup innovation groups, nationwide, other universities and government-funded research institutes in the regions where the laboratory startup innovation groups (nodes) belong will be designated as cooperating institutions (sites), and the laboratory startup innovation groups will be supported to operate market exploration education programs together with these institutions.

Market exploration education institutions will promote re-education for startup education experts (instructors) to ensure that startup teams understand the i-Corps methodology and complete the education diligently. They will also develop the "i-Corps Program Workbook" to provide consistent startup education. Reflecting the demand for various technology fields, 125 teams will be selected, an approximately 28% increase compared to the previous year, for science and engineering startup exploration teams.

Startup exploration teams will receive full-cycle support leading to startup, including ▲building business models (BM), ▲discovering and interviewing potential customers, and ▲item modification (pivoting) and supplementation. For the first time this year, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) verification process will be operated to reduce the possibility of failure during prototype production and to support more effective market entry.

In particular, startup teams with strong entrepreneurial will and excellent performance will be linked to follow-up support projects after startup to assist market entry. For teams aiming for overseas commercialization, "overseas market specialized mentoring" will also be provided, including investment attraction strategies and item modification.

Gwon Seok-min, Director of Science and Technology Job Innovation at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "The Korean-style i-Corps project will be expanded and systematically conducted this year," adding, "We hope many prospective entrepreneurs will create new value from laboratory technology through this opportunity."

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