South Korean Government to Focus on Data, AI and Hydrogen Platforms

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on March 7 that R&D projects worth 500.7 billion won (US$441.8 million) would be launched this year for data, artificial intelligence (AI) and hydrogen industry growth. In addition, 73 billion won will be spent on quantum computing and quantum sensor development from this year to 2023 and 1.5 trillion won (US$1.3 billion) will be invested for 10 years down the road in intelligent semiconductor R&D for combination between semiconductor technology and AI.

The ministry’s R&D spending will be concentrated on eight fields of innovative growth and three platforms, including bio-health, autonomous driving and smart city. When it comes to the eight fields, 894.4 billion won will be spent on R&D and the total investment including the non-R&D budget is 3.6 trillion won. The figures are 500.7 billion won and 1.5 trillion won as for the three industrial platforms.

Preliminary feasibility studies are scheduled for this year for inter-ministerial new drug development projects worth 2 trillion won. Five billion won will be invested in new drug platforms using AI and big data and 2.8 billion won goes to medical equipment development based on AI and robotics technologies. Also, 10.2 billion won will be spent on developing carbon dioxide-free hydrogen production and storage.

From this year to 2022, 44.5 billion won and 28.5 billion won are invested in quantum computing development and quantum sensor development, respectively. Feasibility studies are currently underway for the intelligent semiconductor R&D.
 

At the same time, the ministry has increased its basic science research budget from 1.42 trillion won to 1.71 trillion won. One trillion won will be invested in anti-disaster technology R&D and 112.7 billion won in fine dust reduction.