Conflict-of-interest rules that applied when researchers at government-funded research institutes used their institutions' technologies to start businesses or held shares in companies receiving transferred technologies will be eased.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Wednesday that promulgation bills for amendments to the Act on the Establishment, Operation and Fostering of Government-Funded Research Institutes in the Science and Technology Sector and to the laws governing four science and technology institutes were approved at a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 8. The bills passed a plenary session of the National Assembly on Aug. 20, it said.

There have been calls from research sites that potential conflict-of-interest issues that could arise when using an institute's technology to start a business or participating in a technology transfer have acted as a burden on commercialising research results.

Under the revised law, even if a state research institute researcher starts a business using technology owned by the research institute or holds shares in a company that received that technology, the company will not be regarded as a private interested party under the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act. A legal basis was also 마련됐다 for employees of state research institutes and the four science and technology institutes to provide advice or consulting, or take positions, at companies using technologies from their affiliated research institutes.

The ministry plans to gather feedback from the field and revise its "startup guidelines for researchers at state research institutes" before the law takes effect so that the system change can lead to actual researcher startups and technology transfers. The revised law will take effect in March 2027, six months after promulgation.

First Vice Minister of Science and ICT Gu Hyeok-chae (구혁채) said, "This legal revision has laid an institutional foundation for researchers to actively take on deep-tech startups with their own research results." He added, "We expect it to play an important role in helping advanced-field research results move from the laboratory into the market and grow into future growth engines."