South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said on May 21 it will hold a launch ceremony in Seoul for the deep tech commercialisation support council (NEST) at the Peace and Park Convention Center. It is an inter-agency cooperation framework to promote deep tech startups and growth by using public research results from universities and state-funded research institutes.

The council includes 13 organisations, including three comprehensive specialised companies newly selected in April and 10 company builders. The comprehensive specialised companies are Yonsei University Technology Holdings, Korea Science & Technology Holdings and Bluepoint Partners. The company builders are Kyungpook National University Technology Holdings, Korea University Technology Holdings, Gwangju Regional University Consortium Technology Holdings, Pusan National University Technology Holdings, Seoul National University Technology Holdings, Hanyang University ERICA Technology Holdings, ETRI Holdings, KIST Innovation, Darae Strategic Commercialisation Center and CNTTECH.

The comprehensive specialised companies support the entire growth process for deep tech companies, including startup development and incubation, investment attraction, and patent and legal services, by identifying public technologies from other universities and state-funded institutes in addition to technologies they hold. The company builders take charge of planned startups using promising public technologies based on their technology and region-specialised capabilities.

The launch event will be attended by Koo Hyuk-chae (구혁채), first vice minister of the ministry, officials from the 13 lead organisations, and Kim Byung-kuk (김병국), head of the Korea Technology Commercialization Promotion Agency, among about 80 people. It will hold a signboard presentation ceremony for the selected organisations and a joint electronic signing ceremony, and then discuss ways to build a cooperation framework among the organisations.

Koo said it is important to connect good technologies with the market so they lead to startups, investment and growth. He said he hopes the council will become a new successful model for deep tech commercialisation in South Korea.