Daejeon Bio Startup Center Breaks Ground to Lead Korea's Bio Industry

Prospects for a Bio Startup Innovation Hub

Groundbreaking Ceremony Scene for Daejeon Bio Startup Center Construction (Photo by Daejeon City)

The 'Daejeon Bio Startup Center' held its groundbreaking ceremony on July 15 in Jeonmin-dong, located within the Daedeok Research and Development Special Zone, setting its sights on leading the domestic bio industry.

The Daejeon Bio Startup Center, with a total project cost of 29.56 billion won (including 10 billion won in national funding), will be constructed as a building with one basement floor and five above-ground floors, covering a total floor area of 7,200 square meters. The center aims for completion in the first half of 2027. It will include spaces for bio startups, shared equipment rooms, meeting rooms, and areas for partner organizations. Serving as a core infrastructure for bio entrepreneurship, the center will act as an anchor facility driving the creation of a bio startup ecosystem in Daejeon.

Bird's-eye view of the Bio Startup Center (Photo by Daejeon City)

In particular, the city plans to actively incorporate into the center's operations the management style of LabCentral, a world-renowned bio startup support organization in Boston, United States. This includes the shared laboratory operation model, the startup graduation system, and a private sector-led investment linkage model.

Lee Jangwoo, Mayor of Daejeon, stated, "The Daejeon Bio Startup Center will establish a full-cycle startup support system, ranging from providing initial laboratory space to supporting global expansion. Under the goal of making Daejeon the leader of Korea's bio industry within ten years, we will continue to expand support so that companies with creative technologies and ideas can grow."

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