The South Korean government plans to provide 100 billion Korean won (approximately 530 million yuan) in subsidies for five research projects, with the aim of achieving significant breakthroughs. The South Korean Ministry of Science and Information Technology and the National Science and Technology Research Council recently announced the final selection of five projects by the "Global Top Strategic Research Working Group", including semiconductors, secondary batteries, hydrogen energy, advanced biotechnology, and nuclear energy.
The relevant departments evaluated and screened 51 proposals, and ultimately selected the projects to be funded. These five projects are: secondary battery innovation, hydrogen production system, gene and cell therapy, development of virtual small modular reactor (SMR) platform, and supercomputer semiconductor.
Among them, the working group for the secondary battery project is led by the Korean Institute of Chemical Technology, involving 7 research institutions. The working group will receive a funding of 26 billion Korean won this year, with the goal of developing high-capacity secondary batteries, aviation light secondary batteries, non flammable secondary batteries, and non lithium secondary batteries that can travel across the country after a single charge.
The Hydrogen Research Working Group is supervised by the Korea Energy Research Institute and involves six research institutions. This year, it will receive KRW 17 billion in funding with the goal of developing the next generation of low-temperature and high-temperature electrolysis technologies, and reducing hydrogen prices from KRW 10000 per kilogram to KRW 3000 by 2035.
The genetic research working group involves seven institutions and will receive 17 billion Korean won, with the goal of developing candidate drugs for the treatment of hereditary visual impairment and lung cancer. In addition, the nuclear energy research working group led by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute will receive 20.5 billion Korean won.
