South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on Feb. 11 it will implement the K-HERO fostering and support programme targeting corporate research institutes, and a separate initiative to promote cooperative and convergent science and technology commercialisation that spurs industry-academia-research value-chain cooperation.

The K-HERO programme provides tailored support by selecting institutes whose strong performance and growth potential are verified through a diagnostic review of R&D capabilities at corporate research institutes. Last year, it selected 7 projects in two areas, fostering globally leading institutes and strengthening corporate R&D capabilities 2.0, and will provide a total of 12.5 billion won for up to 3 years and 6 months.

This year it added a new area, R&D technology commercialisation linkage, to the existing support fields. It expands the pool of recipients to include companies with relatively low R&D capacity but high growth potential, strengthening the tailored fostering and support system. This year it plans to newly select 16 projects and invest a total of 14.2 billion won over 1 to 4 years.

The cooperative and convergent science and technology commercialisation promotion support programme targets companies with corporate research institutes, industrial technology research associations, and industry-academia-research consortiums. It supports companies in identifying convergence and complex technologies that are difficult for individual companies to pursue alone, through inter-company cooperation, and in building cooperation models that take commercialisation into account from the technology planning stage.

Details of the project notice can be found on the ministry's website, the National Science & Technology Knowledge Information Service (NTIS) and the Korea Industrial Technology Association website. It will hold a project briefing on Feb. 24 and plans to simulcast it on YouTube.

Eun-young Lee (이은영), director general for research outcome innovation at the ministry, said, "Through the K-HERO programme and the cooperation and convergence programme, we will enhance the research capabilities of corporate research institutes and spare no practical support so cooperation can lead through to commercialisation."