Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to Invest 45 Billion KRW in Food R&D Over 5 Years... 31 New Projects Selected

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has selected 31 new projects for next year's food sector research and development (R&D) program and will invest 45 billion KRW over the next five years.

On the 26th, the Ministry announced that among the new projects, 24 are designated public offering projects and the remaining 7 are open call projects, and research institutions will be publicly recruited. The budget for designated public offering projects is allocated focusing on ▲ technological innovation to achieve carbon neutrality ▲ securing food manufacturing base technologies ▲ fostering future promising fields.

First, to implement the '2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenario,' 13.9 billion KRW will be invested in developing alternative foods and eco-friendly food packaging technologies. 10.5 billion KRW is allocated to securing food manufacturing base technologies such as smartening traditional food production processes, and 13 billion KRW will be supported for research projects aimed at growth in promising fields, including technologies necessary for industrialization of health management foods such as functional materials.

For open call projects, researchers propose topics which are then reviewed and selected by the government, with about 7 projects receiving 1.7 billion KRW in funding.

The Ministry plans to introduce consulting experts for commercialization or support the preparation of technology introduction documents for companies carrying out the projects. The application period for new projects is from January 11 to February 15 next year. Detailed information can be found on the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs website or the Integrated Information Service for Agriculture and Food R&D Projects.

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