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According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) The biggest ever support will be given to R&D of new businesses this year.

Ministry of SMEs and Startups issued a public notice of "technology development projects for new and growing businesses" on February 14 and began receiving applications.

This year, support to new business' R&D will amount to KRW 373.3 billion, up 33% from the previous year (KRW 93.3 billion), recording a new high.

For better effectiveness, MSS will change its support structure, putting market and the private sector in charge. Also, it plans to provide continuous support when R&D results turn into a business, and change an assessment method for selection.

For technology-innovation type startups that already received private investment or their technology had been verified in the market, KRW 224.1 billion, 94% increase (or KRW 108.3 billion) from the previous year, will be committed.

Of total projects, the share of market-led projects jumped from 43% last year to 62%.

When it comes to the support ceiling and period, it will be expanded from "KRW 200 million up to 1 year" to "KRW 400 million up to 2 years."

In addition, support are also planned to ensure R&D results turning into successful businesses in such ways as: in commercialization financing; attracting follow-up investment; and securing sales outlet.

In selecting R&D projects, there will be various assessment methods to be introduced including the site visit and in-depth discussion, besides previous method of face-to-face assessment.

Regarding how to assign assessment committee members, it plans to introduce a big-data based automatic recommendation method to reflect recent patent or dissertation activities starting from the second half of this year.

More details can be found on websites of MSS(www.mss.go.kr), SMEs comprehensive management system for technology development (www.smtech.go.kr), or Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (www.tipa.or.kr). Or by phone, inquiries can be directed to SME's call center (☎ 1357) or kakao plus friends 1357 SMEs call center (http://pf.kakao.com/_IIfqd).

nomad@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (February 14, 2019)

** This article was translated from Korean.