South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Technology Commercialization Promotion Agency selected 25 researchers for follow-up phase 2 support under the "Intellectual Property (IP) Star Scientist Support" programme, choosing the top 50 percent of 50 phase 1 participants, the ministry said on Monday.

The IP Star Scientist Support programme is designed to promote patent-based technology commercialisation by having researchers with strong IP collaborate with private-sector commercialisation specialists. It started in 2024 with 3 billion won in funding, which rose to 5.5 billion won in 2025 and was expanded to 15.75 billion won in 2026.

Under phase 1 of the programme, which ran from April 2024 to December 2025, researchers and private institutions carried out 281 collaborative activities including strategy and planning, technology commercialisation and results creation. This produced 402 patent applications and 50 registrations, including additional domestic and overseas filings and registrations. Patent application and registration productivity per 1 billion won in research and development funding was 57.4 cases and 7.1 cases, respectively, exceeding the national average for government R&D programmes.

There were 160 technology transfers in total, and technology transfer revenue came to 16.6 billion won. Of these, there were 43 medium-to-large technology transfers worth at least 100 million won, with average revenue per case of 320 million won.

Among the 25 researchers selected for phase 2 support, the share in the Seoul metropolitan area was highest at 64 percent. By technology field, the BT field accounted for 44 percent. The types of private institutions were evenly distributed among technology transaction agencies, patent law firms and specialised commercialisation companies.

From 2026, the ministry will expand support beyond universities to include researchers at government-funded research institutes. It will complete recruitment of 50 new IP Star Scientists in March. After phase 2 ends, it will also consider additional phase 3 support after evaluating results.

Eun-young Lee (이은영), director-general for Research Outcome Innovation at the ministry, said securing strong IP to pre-empt technology markets and linking it to commercialisation are important. She said the ministry will do its best to support IP-based commercialisation so it can drive a major leap in people’s lives.