Korean Government to Work on Novel Industrial Materials

The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning announced that it would launch the Future Material Discovery Project in order to develop novel industrial materials by means of unprecedented research methodology in which creative ideas and information and communications technology (ICT) are combined with each other.

 The global materials industry is expected to reach US$10 trillion in size in 2018 by recording an annual average growth rate of 5.2%. In addition, materials’ contribution to high-tech industries amounted to 70% in the ICT sector, 60% in environmental technology and 50% in biotech last year. In other words, product quality and industrial competitiveness hinge on materials these days. 

Last year, Korean enterprises accounted for no less than 48% of the global display market but imported 100% of the essential materials they used, such as triacetyl cellulose (TAC) films, from Japan. Besides, Chinese companies are catching up with them in terms of technology as well as price. The Future Material Discovery Project is to deal with this situation.

 The project is characterized by a bottom-up approach, that is, collecting creative ideas from researchers instead of determining specific materials for use in specific products in advance. During the course of the project, the internal structures of various materials are to be altered for the development of new physical properties so that the results of the development can withstand extreme conditions in the fields of aerospace, nuclear power generation and the like. Also, novel materials are to be developed by the utilization of quantum alchemy, which is to theoretically predict physical properties realized based on combinations of chemical elements, so materials capable of replacing rare elements and those for use in catalysts and batteries are developed through the chemical control of common elements.

ICT materials capable of overcoming scaling limits are to be studied, too. Outcomes of this research are expected to be used in Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices in the form of materials with controlled electromagnetic properties for application to advanced semiconductor devices, materials consuming little power yet retaining their data for long, etc. Furthermore, those for augmenting and restoring the five human senses are to be worked on.

 The ministry is planning to provide selected research participants with subsidies for up to six years. A total of 28 groups are to join the project with six of them scheduled to be named in March and April this year and four having been picked out last year. A total of 306.6 billion won is to be invested in the groups until 2024.