South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on April 12 it designated regulatory exemptions for a total of 3 new technologies at the 58th R&D Special Zone Committee meeting held on April 10.

The R&D Special Zone regulatory sandbox allows companies and research institutions in designated zones to test and verify new products and services using new technologies under certain conditions. If there are no safety problems, regulations can be improved and the products can be launched on the market. Since its introduction in March 2021, 42 new technologies have been designated for regulatory exemptions, including these 3 cases.

The committee designated a regulatory exemption for NBIT to conduct a demonstration that would verify a dog identification and animal registration system using direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. Under current law, dogs can be registered only if they wear a wireless electronic identification device, but the exemption allows a pilot for identification and registration using genetic testing on condition it supports the existing animal registration method.

The R&D Special Zone Committee also granted an exemption for producing activated carbon by recycling waste-plastic pyrolysis residues (Wintech Globis, Korea Water Resources Corp). Waste-plastic pyrolysis residues are currently treated as waste because there are no legal standards for recycling them. The exemption allows verification of the quality and ecotoxicity of activated carbon made from waste plastics, as well as its pollutant removal efficiency.

It also granted an exemption for an AI prediction-based follow-and-track, heavy-load towing autonomous transport robot (Wave AI). When using video filmed for training autonomous transport robots, consent from data subjects and pseudonymisation are required. Under the exemption, original video without mosaics can be used on condition required safety measures are followed when using original video data.

Eun-young Lee (이은영), director general for R&D Performance and Innovation at the ministry, said it would actively support rapid commercialisation of new-technology products and services at the demonstration stage through the regulatory sandbox. She said the ministry would work so the public can feel the effects of regulatory improvements.