South Gyeongsang Province selects 35 firms for 32 billion won R&D support program

South Gyeongsang Province selected the most companies nationwide — 35 in total — in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Regional Innovation Leading Company Development (R&D)" competition. The province secured a total project budget of 32 billion won, including 22.4 billion won in state funding. It announced Monday that it had signed technology development agreements with the selected firms and formally launched the program.

The program aims to support research and development by small and medium-sized enterprises in key industries outside the Greater Seoul area, strengthening regional industrial competitiveness and driving economic growth.

This year, South Gyeongsang Province entered the competition by forming industry-academia-research consortia in three fields: intelligent autonomous manufacturing, advanced aviation and next-generation nuclear power plants. Intelligent autonomous manufacturing drew the largest share, with 17 companies selected. One cutting-processing firm in the province is partnering with Changwon National University to develop machine learning-based automated fault-diagnosis technology for CNC lathes.

Eleven companies were chosen in the advanced aviation field. One firm conducting joint research with Korea Polytechnic University is working to localize helicopter anti-torque technology and plans to file three related intellectual property applications. Seven companies were selected in the next-generation nuclear power plant category. A firm collaborating with the Korea Institute of Materials Science plans to develop an AI-based automated digital radiographic testing system to localize key components for small modular reactors.

Selected companies will receive between 400 million and 1.4 billion won in R&D funding per project over two years. The province expects the program to generate a 143 billion won increase in sales and create 171 new jobs. South Gyeongsang Province plans to work with Gyeongnam Technopark to support project implementation and performance management.

Lee Mi-hwa, director of the province's industry bureau, said the province would "strengthen regional industrial competitiveness by fostering intelligent autonomous manufacturing, advanced aviation and next-generation nuclear power plants."