The industry ministry will strengthen R&D support for mid-sized companies, focusing on regions and manufacturing AX (M.AX). The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Sunday it was announcing 4 R&D support programmes for mid-sized companies and would expand support for regional development and manufacturing AX. This year's budget is 65.5 billion won, up 20 percent from 54.8 billion won a year earlier. It will create a regional-only track in major programmes so that more than 60 percent of new tasks are supported for regional mid-sized companies.

In particular, tasks related to AI convergence, including manufacturing AX, will be given preferential treatment in project selection evaluations through adjusted assessment indicators. The 4 programmes are World Class Plus Project support (28.4 billion won), a mid-sized and small company shared-growth innovation leap programme (25.2 billion won), a mid-sized company and public research institute technology innovation challenge (3.3 billion won), and core R&D personnel growth support for mid-sized companies (1.3 billion won).

The World Class Plus Project support programme, aimed at fostering global specialist companies, will support 6 of 10 new tasks this year through a regional-only track. The remaining 4 will be supported through an open-competition track. The support limit per task is 5.0 billion won over 4 years for the regional-only track and 4.0 billion won for the open-competition track.

The shared-growth innovation leap programme, in which small and mid-sized companies share joint R&D outcomes, will support 10 of 15 new tasks through a regional-only track. Regardless of track, the support limit per task is 3.9 billion won over 3 years. The mid-sized company and public research institute technology innovation challenge will select 2 tasks from among mid-sized companies that participated within the past 3 years in a programme to explore business diversification by mid-sized companies.

The core R&D personnel growth support programme will support 18 people at early-stage mid-sized companies with average annual revenue over 3 years of less than 300 billion won. If a company uses young master's and doctoral graduates or experienced technical specialists as research staff, it will support up to 40 percent of labour costs. Up to 2 people per company can receive support over 3 years.

Companies wishing to take part in the mid-sized company R&D support programmes can apply from Monday. The industry ministry plans to hold integrated briefings by region in Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju and Busan, together with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

The industry ministry said, "Balanced regional development and M.AX are ultimately the broad direction of industrial policy, and we will actively strengthen support for mid-sized companies so they can grow into leading regional companies and lead innovation as the backbone of our industry."