Planting Seeds for Nobel Prizes?
Samsung Electronics is planning to invest about 960 billion won until 2022 in order to create an environment conducive to scientific and technological development. To this end, it is going to launch various programs so that, for example, research tasks to be funded are selected through blind tests and some of the tasks can be unlimitedly funded for up to 10 years. Also, the company is going to apply for patents, attract investors, and develop new business models with the results of the research programs.
All of these constitute the company’s investment and job creation plan worth 180 trillion won, which was released on August 8. Samsung Electronics is expected to be working even more closely with research institutes and many others to focus more on future business items such as artificial intelligence and next-generation semiconductors.
The new investment plan that is scheduled to continue until 2022, dubbed Samsung Future Technology Project, was announced in Seoul on August 13. According to the plan, the new investment will go to challenging research activities that have been excluded from funding for high risks. Samsung’s purpose in doing so is to enhance the technological competitiveness of South Korea as a whole by working with more brilliant and talented researchers.
The first Samsung Future Technology Project was launched five years ago. In the project, the Samsung Future Technology Foundation and the Samsung Research Funding Center for Future Technology have been in charge of research assistance for basic sciences and the fields of ICT, materials and components, respectively. They have funded 428 tasks with 538.9 billion won so far, which are divided into 149 in basic sciences, 132 in material and component technology, and 147 in information and communications technology. At present, more than 7,300 researchers from 46 research institutes and colleges are taking part in the project.