South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Jan. 27 it will invest 268.5 billion won this year in its industrial innovation infrastructure programme, the largest amount on record. The figure is up 11.5 percent from last year. The ministry said the move is intended to support technological self-reliance and strengthen competitiveness amid rapidly shifting global technology competition.

The programme supports equipment needed by companies and research institutes for testing and evaluation, certification, demonstrations and building testbeds. It sets up equipment at non-profit institutions such as universities and research institutes for shared use, as individual companies or research bodies often cannot invest on their own due to costs. The budget has risen to 268.5 billion won this year from 161.5 billion won in 2022.

The ministry plans to select 28 new projects this year, up 12 from last year. Of the 28.0 billion won in new funding, it will focus about 40 percent, or 11.2 billion won, on building AI infrastructure. It plans to expand AI facilities and equipment infrastructure that can be used immediately on manufacturing sites, including AI autonomous laboratories and manufacturing AI transformation.

Starting with this year's new projects, it will require the creation of shared research spaces to promote industry-academia-research cooperation in advanced technology fields such as AI, semiconductors and secondary batteries. It will create shared research spaces at 141 institutions out of 286 research base centres across the country. The ministry plans to promote cooperation among anchor companies, small and mid-sized firms, universities and research institutions, and accelerate technological innovation and commercialisation.

It will also strengthen customised support centred on on-site demand. It will pursue a research-base-advancement type of infrastructure building that supports upgrades and maintenance for aging equipment at self-reliant centres with strong records in shared use of research equipment. It will also carry out an AI autonomous laboratory type of infrastructure building that predicts results through virtual experiments and supports autonomous experimentation from planning to deriving results.

Notices for this year's programme will be issued in 3 rounds. The first round will be issued on Jan. 27, and 9 projects will be selected first. Details are available on the websites of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology.

Choi Yeon-woo (최연우), director general for industrial technology convergence policy at the ministry, said, "To take the lead in rapidly changing advanced technology competition such as the major AI transition, securing research facilities and equipment in advance is the most important thing." He said, "Through the industrial innovation infrastructure programme, which builds and supports the use of shared infrastructure that small and mid-sized firms find difficult to build directly but is essential for industrial technology development, we will actively support companies on the ground in responding to new technologies."