Apply for Your First Ever SME R&D Support

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 1st that it will recruit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the '2025 Startup Growth Technology Development Project - First Step R&D.' The 'Startup Growth Technology Development Project' is designed to promote technology startups and the growth of startup companies by supporting technology development (R&D) for startups with growth potential. Startups established within 7 years (within 10 years for new industry startup sectors) and with sales under 2 billion KRW are eligible to participate.

This project announcement calls for startups to participate in the Startup Growth - First Step R&D. Until now, small-scale support of 120 million KRW per project for one year has been provided to expand the base of technology startups, but starting this year, support will be expanded to up to 200 million KRW per project for up to 1 year and 6 months to strengthen the achievement of results by startup companies.

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Since the support targets companies conducting their first R&D with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the ministry plans to actively utilize its 13 regional offices to strengthen field-oriented support. First, 20 points will be allocated in the evaluation indicators under the 'regional specialization evaluation indicator' category to select projects that match the characteristics of specialized industries and companies in each region. Additionally, each regional office will hold meetings with local companies and provide close support by responding to complaints on-site, delivering customized services promptly to companies.

Park Yong-soon, Director of Technology Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “This year as well, we will continue to provide unwavering support through the Startup Technology Development Project to help startup companies grow to the next level,” adding, “We will provide continuous support to companies not just through simple R&D funding but with field-oriented assistance.”

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