South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP) said on Monday they had confirmed three technologies, including in the display, secondary battery and quantum sectors, as national strategic technologies in the first 2026 round of applications.

The national strategic technology confirmation system checks whether technologies held or managed, or under research and development, by companies, universities and research institutes qualify as national strategic technologies. In this round, industry, academic and research experts reviewed 38 technologies.

In the display sector, Depolab's "high-resolution, high-efficiency linear evaporation source technology for large-area OLED deposition" was confirmed to fall under "display materials, parts and equipment", a detailed priority technology in the display category of national strategic technologies. The technology improves the performance of deposition equipment components in the OLED thin-film deposition process to achieve high resolution and high luminance and to improve process efficiency.

In the secondary battery sector, Donghwa Electrolyte's "hybrid electrolyte additive based on a multi-bond structure to deliver core performance of lithium secondary batteries" was confirmed to fall under "high-performance core materials for secondary batteries", a detailed priority technology in the secondary battery category of national strategic technologies. The technology was assessed as improving the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries through an electrolyte additive.

In the quantum sector, SDT's "high-resolution photon time measurement technology" was confirmed to fall under "quantum light-based sensing", a detailed priority technology in the quantum category. The technology is an ultra-precision measurement technology that precisely measures photon generation and analyses time correlations in real time.

Companies that hold and manage national strategic technologies are eligible for a special listing under a "super-gap" technology track. They also receive benefits including selection as a designated company for military service and support from policy finance. From this year, additional benefits were added, including extra points in selection evaluations for government R&D projects and patent-based commercialisation R&D.

Cho Sun-hak (조선학), director general for science and technology policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said securing national strategic technologies is an urgent national task in the competition for technology hegemony. He said the government would support securing strategic technologies through cross-ministry cooperation and communication with the private sector.