South Korea’s government will support young postdoctoral researchers and back industry-academia joint research in national strategic technology fields. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it selected 13 new consortia for its 2026 Strategic Technology Postdoctoral Industry-Academia Project. Companies will identify technology demand and form consortia with universities and state-funded research institutes. Selected consortia can receive up to 580 million won over two years, including personnel costs for postdoctoral researchers.

Korea Post is expanding the role of postmen to act as a “last mile” in national administration, including identifying welfare blind spots and carrying out administrative checks. It shifted from one-off disaster response to a permanent delivery system for welfare and administrative services after introducing “welfare mail” in 2022. Legal grounds were strengthened in May through an amendment. Projects also include statistical surveys and environmental collection efforts such as unused medicines and e-cigarettes.