Korea to establish joint research facilities, equipment for key technologies

[Image source: Gettyimagesbank]

The South Korean government will launch a project to build joint research facilities and equipment to foster technologies in the materials, parts, and equipment sectors across chips, displays, and automobiles.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced on Monday that it is holding an open competition for new projects aimed at developing infrastructure to support the core strategic technologies in the materials, parts, and equipment sectors.

The project’s objective is to help companies commercialize their strategic technologies by having public agencies and non-profit organizations build research facilities and equipment.

The government plans to invest 70 billion won ($55 million) in the project, which will serve as a strategic testbed for strengthening the global supply chain of core materials, parts, and equipment industries over a period of four years from this year to 2026.

In this first year, 25 billion won will be provided for the project.

The seven areas targeted for new projects this year include automotive chips, flexible displays, power generation devices for electric vehicles, smart factory transportation modules, ultra-high temperature and high-strength metal materials, highly-functional plastic materials, and power conversion components.

The industry ministry will recruit project managing organizations for one month and will start implementing the project from September following the evaluation and selection process.

The government has invested 257 billion won since 2019 through the demonstration project to strengthen the basis for the materials, parts, and equipment industries. It introduced 423 types of jointly utilized equipment supporting 100 core strategic technologies.

“Innovations are essential to overcoming the complex crisis amid intensifying competition for technological power and declining growth potential of our economy,” the ministry said. “We will create an ecosystem that can support the materials, parts, and equipment industries in a timely and effective manner, enabling them to respond to the global supply chain and strengthen the competitiveness in those industries.”