Record-high Competition Rate of 41:1 for Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Largest-ever R&D 'Ecosystem Innovation-type DCP'

206 Project Teams Apply, Only 5 to Be Selected in Final Round
Private Investment of Over KRW 3 Billion Required; Government to Provide Up to KRW 20 Billion
Separate Private Expert Jury Established and In-Depth Discussion-Type Evaluation Introduced

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on April 20 that the newly launched “Ecosystem Innovation-type Deep Tech Challenge Project” (hereafter referred to as Ecosystem Innovation-type DCP) recorded a competition rate of 41 to 1.

The Ecosystem Innovation-type DCP is a large-scale project designed to drive change and innovation in the industrial ecosystem and discover game-changing initiatives capable of leading the global market. Consortia comprising multiple small and venture companies, large and mid-sized corporations, universities, and government-funded research institutes can participate. The program is linked to private investment, such as a minimum of KRW 3 billion in upfront investment from venture capital (VC) and other private investors, and provides up to KRW 20 billion in research and development (hereafter R&D) support over four years.

This project solicitation focused on 12 strategic technology sectors. From January 8 to April 7, a total of 206 projects and 1,183 companies and research institutes applied to be among the final five selected projects. By the five key strategic technology groups, the applications were distributed as follows: pharmaceuticals and bio 52 (25.2%), manufacturing, robotics, and defense 51 (24.8%), and artificial intelligence (hereafter AI) and digital 37 (18.0%), among others.

DCP Ecosystem Innovation Support Procedure. Ministry of SMEs and Startups

The Ministry plans to strengthen the fairness and expertise of the selection process through multi-phase evaluations. The number of expert judges will be increased from the previous 5 to 7 to 12, and in addition to technical experts, business management and investment specialists will also be included as judges.

The Ministry will also establish a separate “Private Expert Jury,” composed of around 100 participants including employees of technology-innovative SMEs, investors, and experts in the humanities and social sciences, to complement the expert panel’s review by introducing an open evaluation method. Applications can be submitted via the SME Technology Development Project Integrated Management System from April 21 to May 8.

To enable thorough discussion rather than simple presentation evaluations, a “deep discussion-type evaluation” will be introduced. Moving away from the previous limited 30-minute format, this new approach will allow sufficient time for Q&A and debate on key issues before reaching a conclusion.

To carefully select projects with a significant ripple effect on ecosystem innovation, a step-by-step evaluation system will be applied: the first stage (document review), second stage (in-person open evaluation), preliminary research, and final selection. The process will focus on criteria such as whether the project truly fosters ecosystem innovation, the composition and roles of project teams, and market impact, with outstanding teams—about eight—being selected through open evaluation involving both experts and the public.

The selected outstanding project teams will be given a “preliminary research phase” to develop detailed R&D execution plans, verify the performance of core technologies, and establish collaborative systems over a four-month period. After further competition, approximately five final projects will be selected within the year.

To prevent excellent proposals from being sidelined, the Ministry will offer those that do not fully meet ecosystem innovation requirements but demonstrate strong technological and business potential the opportunity for support as a technology challenge-type DCP, following a re-planning of the RFP (Request for Proposal) by experts.

Minister Han Seongsook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups stated, “The Ecosystem Innovation-type DCP aims not just to support individual companies but to discover projects capable of transforming the entire industry landscape. Through rigorous and fair screening, we will select national flagship project teams that earn public consensus, and by introducing open evaluation, we aim to foster greater public interest and support.”

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