Kukpyowon Invests 40.3 Billion KRW in Developing Carbon Neutrality International Standards

Lee Sang-hoon, President of the National Institute of Technology and Standards at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, is delivering a greeting at the "3rd Carbon Neutral Standardization Strategy Council" held on November 30, 2021, at the Harmony Ballroom of InterContinental Seoul COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] The government will invest 40.3 billion KRW this year in standardization research and development to secure international standards in the fields of digital transformation and carbon neutrality. This amount represents a 7.8% increase compared to last year (37.4 billion KRW). The government plans to establish our technology as international standards to actively support domestic companies' entry into the global market.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 23rd that it will discover and support 58 new research and development projects for the first phase of the 2022 National Standard Technology Capability Enhancement Project (Standardization Capability Project) worth 7.5 billion KRW.

The Standardization Capability Project proposes international standards to official standardization organizations (ISO/IEC) and de facto standard organizations (such as IEEE) to promote the preemption of international standards for our technology. It also supports infrastructure development such as workforce training and the establishment of an international mutual recognition testing system for carbon neutrality. In this first announcement, 58 new research and development projects will be selected, including 20 designated competitive projects (4.1 billion KRW), 19 item-designated projects (1.7 billion KRW), and 19 open competitive projects (1.7 billion KRW).

The National Institute of Technology and Standards' strategy for this year is to strengthen industrial competitiveness in the digital transformation era and support the implementation of carbon neutrality through these new projects.

First, 13 projects have been allocated for the development of international standards for digital technologies such as conversational artificial intelligence (AI) services, autonomous vehicle operation information, and wearable biosignal measurement sensors, as well as for the establishment of related infrastructure.

More than half of the new projects (31 projects) focus on digital transformation and carbon neutrality fields, including 18 projects for developing international standards for core carbon neutrality technologies such as mineral carbonation in the carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) sector, megawatt (MW)-scale clean hydrogen production and storage technology development, and infrastructure establishment to respond to the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

Open competitive projects allow applicants to submit proposals to international standard organizations for technologies or evaluation methods, and if selected, they can carry out the projects. Any company, academia, or institution possessing design, manufacturing, process technologies, or test methods that can be registered as international standards can participate. Each project is supported up to 120 million KRW per year (for a maximum of 5 years), with a total of 19 projects supported.

Lee Sang-hoon, Director of the National Institute of Technology and Standards, said, “The Standardization Capability Project is a core project that establishes the technologies we have developed as international standards and supports our companies to enter the global market based on them. We will promptly respond to the changing trends of digital transformation and carbon neutrality and expand policy support to promote companies' international standardization activities.”

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