Daejeon Selected as 'Global Innovation Zone for Advanced Bio Manufacturing' by Ministry of SMEs and Startups

Support for City Infrastructure, R&D, and Global Expansion

Daejeon City has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Global Innovation Zone' contest.

Daejeon has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' “Global Innovation Zone” project, following its designation as a bio-specialized complex and an Opportunity Development Zone.

According to the city on the 9th, the Global Innovation Zone is an advanced version of the current Regulatory Free Zone implemented by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. This project supports the development of new products in cutting-edge fields and overseas expansion by applying global-standard systems in regulations, demonstration, certification, and insurance.

To prepare for the project application, the city gathered opinions from local companies and related organizations over about five months, established a plan for a “Synthetic Biology-Based Advanced Bio-Manufacturing” Global Innovation Zone, and submitted its application in October.

A total of nine projects from seven local governments were submitted for the competition. After the first document screening on December 4, six projects advanced to the presentation evaluation, and Daejeon was selected in the field of advanced bio-manufacturing.

Advanced bio-manufacturing based on synthetic biology is an industry attracting significant attention, in line with the global trend of the “Great Bio Transformation.”

Going forward, the city plans to foster the advanced bio-manufacturing industry through the Global Innovation Zone, which will provide public infrastructure, demand-driven R&D, global expansion support, and domestic regulatory easing.

To this end, the Biofoundry at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, a leading domestic institution for synthetic biology research, and the GMP facilities at the Daejeon Technopark Bio Center will be utilized for LMO research, development, and production.

Additionally, to support demand-driven R&D, the city will facilitate international joint research between companies and overseas research institutions to secure advanced technologies needed by businesses.

For global expansion, a support system for overseas certification and contract manufacturing will also be established. By cooperating with domestic and international global certification support agencies, the city will provide pre-consulting from the technology development stage to help companies quickly obtain overseas certifications, and will support rapid overseas expansion and mass production technology through overseas contract manufacturing.

Furthermore, to ease domestic regulations, the city will promote R&D and manufacturing/production demonstrations. To expand the range of domestic LMO strains available for industrial use, a “bio menu” will be created to verify safety and help companies easily select the strains they need. The city will also support streamlined facility licensing procedures and prototype production by utilizing public production facilities for industrial LMO.

Through this project, the city expects to generate an economic impact of 126.6 billion KRW and create 547 jobs, with ripple effects across various industries such as pharmaceuticals, food, agriculture and livestock, and energy.

Han Sunhee, Director of the Future Strategic Industry Bureau of Daejeon City, said, “With the selection of the bio-specialized complex and Opportunity Development Zone earlier this year, and now the Global Innovation Zone supporting global growth, Daejeon's advanced technology-based bio companies have been given wings to soar worldwide. Daejeon City will continue to provide unwavering support to foster sustainable new advanced bio industries.”

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