According to Yonhap News,

The Korean government is set to foster ten unicorns in the field of deep tech by 2027 by expanding R&D cooperation with private sectors in the basic fields.

Deep tech refers to a technology based on advanced science, and engineering and unicorns are unlisted startups with a valuation of over KRW 1 trillion.

The Ministry of Science and ICT released the 'Pan-government Scale-up R&D Investment Strategy' with such pillars at the 16th Emergency Ministerial Meeting on Economic Affairs held virtually on Jan. 12.

Science Ministry set a goal of injecting KRW 15 trillion within five years and creating ten deep-tech unicorns, setting out four basic directions: expanding private sector engagement, bolstering pan-government collaboration, diversifying ways of supporting business, and providing ecology-oriented support.

First and foremost, the ministry plans to finance early-stage innovative companies within three years of establishment years by capitalizing on policy funds linked with R&D. 'Scale-up National Technology Strategy Center will be newly established to work as a national think tank that analyzes the current state of R&D investment and ramps up investment strategies. This is to distribute the budget for R&D with a perspective of pan-government integration.

The tech-related dataset compiled by an individual division is scheduled to be analyzed with Big Data and AI to select promising technologies and to share with the private sector.

The targeted dataset includes ETechS of the Science Ministry, NTB of the Trade Ministry and Tech-Bridge of the Startup Ministry.

With an aim of spreading the initiative in R&D into the private sector as well, the R&D projects will be introduced in three types, which are deferred payment, competition, and voucher. In addition, the burdens of R&D expenditure will be applied depending on the business size so that companies can shed some of them.

Furthermore, led by regional hub universities, the cooperation of local laboratories, government-funded research institutes, and companies will be maximized to give birth to an 'industry-academia-research scale-up valley.' Benchmarking the Quantum Valley in Waterloo, Canada, the Ministry is in a bid to pursue tech partnership with overseas universities and to attract researchers.

Science Minister Lee Jong-ho said, "Marking the age of government R&D worth KRW 30 trillion, we will spare no effort in raising a seed of promising technologies on the backs of private-public partnership to bloom into a global unicorn cooperation."


csm@yna.co.kr

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Source: Yonhap News (Jan. 12, 2023)

**This article was translated from Korean.