Public Research Institutions' Technology Transfer Rate Surpasses 40% for the First Time in History

The number of technology transfers from public research institutions, including universities and government-funded research institutes, to the private sector has reached an all-time high.

According to relevant ministries on the 19th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology conducted a survey on technology transfer and commercialization at public research institutions. The results showed that the number of technology transfers in the previous year was 15,383, a 22% increase compared to the previous year (12,592). The significant increase was largely influenced by 1,680 additional technology transfers from four institutions: the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Yonsei University, and Kyung Hee University.

With the increase in technology transfer cases, the technology transfer rate?a key indicator of technology transfer performance?surpassed 40% for the first time since the survey began in 2007, reaching 40.9%. The technology transfer rate is calculated as the ratio of technology transfers to newly acquired technologies during the survey period. The number of newly acquired technologies increased by 2,090 (5.9%), but the number of technology transfers increased more significantly by 2,791 (22.2%).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy evaluated that the technology transfer rate, which had stagnated in the mid-30% range, has now surpassed 40% for the first time, laying a foothold to further enhance technology transfer performance in the future.

Revenue from technology fees received by public research institutions as compensation for technology transfers also reached a record high of 256.6 billion KRW, a 9% increase from the previous year (235 billion KRW). The average annual growth rate over five years was 8.9%, indicating a continuing upward trend. However, the average technology fee per case decreased to 16.6 million KRW from 18.6 million KRW the previous year, highlighting the need for improvement.

The Ministry assessed that 80% (12,226 cases) of the transferred technologies were transferred to startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), indicating that public technologies significantly aid the technological innovation of SMEs, which generally have relatively limited research capabilities compared to large corporations. By technology sector, information and communication technologies accounted for 30.5%, and bio and medical technologies accounted for 25.6%, together making up more than half of the transferred technologies.

The government plans to use the results of this survey to jointly establish and announce the "8th Technology Transfer and Commercialization Promotion Plan (2023?2025)" with relevant ministries. A Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy official stated, "Based on the results of the public research institution survey, we plan to announce the ‘Innovation Growth-Oriented Technology Commercialization Strategy’ in early November, which will include measures to secure excellent technologies, promote technology transfer, and activate commercialization."

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