The Korea Institute of Materials Science(KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced a plan to completely reorganize and carry out the existing corporation support business into a project with the ultimate goal of ‘technology commercialization’.

According to the ‘Policy Recommendations Research Report’ issued by the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) this year, most small and medium-sized business support project by the government-funded research institute has not been able to deviate from simple resolution support for business difficulties. Also, it was found that no significant results were achieved due to the avoidance of the participation of general researchers and the supplier-oriented operation method. The biggest improvement direction suggested by the report is the establishment of a virtuous cycle structure through conversion to specialized technical support tailored to the characteristics of each government-funded research institute and the improvement of corporate accessibility.

Since 2021, by proactively identifying the same issues of excellent technical support and improved accessibility, KIMS has developed its own ‘corporation support platform (www.kims.re.kr/platform)’ and has been operating it since December of last year. The platform maximizes the effectiveness of corporation support by accurately analyzing the corporation’s business field and demand technology through data-based history management and providing it to the corporation. In addition, it is characterized by significantly improving corporate accessibility by integrating and unifying the existing operating systems of each business department as well as enabling two-way communication between researchers and corporations in real-time.

Starting this year, KIMS plans to brand the corporation support project as a ‘Materials and Parts Corporation Support Project’ and in detail, plans the ‘Materials and Parts Commercialization Support Project’ as a key project to support the commercialization field in earnest. Through this, corporations will create new businesses and commercialize new projects in their main fields through R&D and technological innovation, and KIMS will reorganize and operate the business system to provide company-led and customized support for consumers (corporations).

Soon-ho Won, director of the Materials Testing & Reliability Division (concurrent position as Head of the Department of Corporation Support) at KIMS, said, “Innovative improvement of the support system, clarification of practice strategies, change in the perception of representatives of participating corporations, and induction of voluntary participation by strengthening incentives for researchers are the key elements of the plan to vitalize cooperative support for small and medium-sized enterprises by the government-funded research institute”. He continued, “Reflecting all of these improvements, we promise to present innovative achievements that are differentiated from the previous ones through the preceding KIMS corporation support platform and new projects.”