DGIST wins 4 group research grants to tackle national science challenges

The Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) announced Tuesday that it had secured four grants under the 2026 Group Research Support Program, administered by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea — one Leading Research Center designation and three Basic Research Lab awards.

The Group Research Support Program is a flagship national initiative that provides concentrated funding for teams of researchers to tackle complex scientific problems too difficult for any individual scientist to solve alone.

The Leading Research Center (SRC) track cultivates large-scale research hubs to strengthen the foundations of basic science. The Basic Research Lab (BRL) track identifies small, high-performing groups that dig deeply into specific research topics, serving as a catalyst for universities' basic research capabilities.

Under the Leading Research Center program, the research team led by Professor Kwak Jun-myung will receive 12.6 billion won ($8.17 million) over seven years for its Plant Fruit Growth Research Center. The team plans to build a foundation model called "DEEP Fruit" that integrates single-cell analysis with AI, complete a three-dimensional cellular map, and identify in detail the core molecular mechanisms driving fruit growth.

Three research teams were selected for the Basic Research Lab program, each receiving 1.5 billion won over three years. In the "pioneering" category — designed for creative and challenging research — professors Lee Jae-hong and Lee Sung-min of the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering were chosen. Professor Ki Young-hun of the Department of New Biology was selected in the "advanced" category, which supports in-depth follow-up research building on existing work.

Lee Jae-hong's team will develop an intelligent active protective wearable system that rapidly predicts fall risks in elderly users and instantaneously stiffens the garment's electronic-fiber material to prevent injury.

Lee Sung-min's team will establish the foundational principles of "universal mobility intelligence," enabling humans, drones and self-driving cars to independently perceive their surroundings and cooperate in the physical world.

Ki Young-hun's team will decode at the molecular level the assembly mechanism of telomere condensates — the key structures that allow treatment-resistant cancer cells to divide indefinitely. The work will lay the groundwork for new therapeutic strategies and diagnostic biomarkers for intractable cancers.

DGIST President Lee Geon-woo said the selection of multiple research teams for both programs was "a meaningful achievement that has earned national recognition for DGIST's outstanding basic research capabilities and the excellence of its convergence synergy." He added that the institute would "spare no effort in supporting our researchers as they advance toward becoming a world-class research hub and generate innovative science and technology that transforms human life."