'Public Demand-Based New Technology Commercialization' Applications Open Until 21st Next Month... Support for 'R&D, Demonstration, Procurement'

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Public Procurement Service announced on the 21st that they will accept applications for the "Public Innovation Demand-Based New Technology Commercialization Project" until the 21st of next month. This project promotes technology development based on the demands of public institutions and designates the developed products as excellent procurement items by the Public Procurement Service, allowing public institutions to purchase them through negotiated contracts.

The project, which started in 2019, enables companies that have developed innovative technologies to easily secure public procurement channels based on the demand to solve social problems of public institutions. It promotes technology development based on the demands of public institutions and designates the products as excellent procurement items by the Public Procurement Service, supplying them to demand institutions through negotiated contracts and other methods. Previously, seven tasks selected in 2019 have completed technology development and demonstration, and are currently pursuing public procurement linkage through designation as excellent procurement items by the Public Procurement Service this year.

Starting this year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy established the "Public Procurement Innovation Support Group" to support the entire project cycle process, including 'demand discovery and planning, monitoring, and procurement linkage,' so that companies participating in the tasks can more easily enter the public procurement market and succeed in commercialization. The support group participates in the process of discovering public innovation demands, selects high-quality demands, and its technical experts visit and consult with public institutions on-site to directly draft request for proposals, enhancing the completeness of task planning.

Additionally, the support group participates in the research and development (R&D) and demonstration processes, conducts regular monitoring, and acts as a bridge between developing companies and public institutions to improve the alignment between innovation demands and developed technologies. At the end of the development process, procurement and commercialization experts within the support group will provide consulting to increase the success rate of public procurement and commercialization.

At the beginning of this year, after reviewing 45 innovation demands submitted by public institutions and 221 procurement demands cooperated by the Public Procurement Service, tasks were planned based on 10 final approved demands, including the development of human-safe quarantine products (Korea Industrial Complex Corporation) and urban-close solar power generation module technology development (Korea East-West Power).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will select technology development institutions based on the alignment with public demand, excellence of business plans, commercialization capabilities, and ripple effects. Selected institutions are expected to complete technology development, on-site demonstration, and performance verification over the next two years, and the developed results will go through the Public Procurement Service’s excellent procurement item designation process to be applied on-site starting in 2023.

Seong Yoon-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "The Public Innovation Demand-Based New Technology Commercialization Project is expected to open up initial sales channels using the procurement market for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies." He added, "We will actively support enhancing overall project efficiency by utilizing the Public Procurement Innovation Support Group and creating 'win-win' outcomes for public institutions and companies developing technologies."

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