The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will shift the focus of its researcher hiring subsidy program to four "new growth" sectors starting next year. The plan merges two separate programs that had supported wages for junior and senior researchers, and narrows eligibility mainly to companies in economic security, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, climate technology and Korean consumer goods. But with the fate of a 60% quota for provincial firms now uncertain, concerns have emerged that small and medium-sized enterprises outside the capital region could be left out.
The ministry will consolidate its junior and senior researcher hiring subsidy programs into a single "new growth researcher hiring subsidy program" from next year, according to related agencies on the 16th. Under the program, when an SME with an in-house research institute or a dedicated research and development department hires a researcher, the government covers up to 50% of that researcher's wages for three years. Because the support is matched directly to individual hires, the program is regarded as one that companies feel the effects of on the ground. It traces its origins to a 2004 program supporting SME employment of researchers with master's and doctoral degrees, and is currently run as two separate programs — junior and senior — based on a researcher's experience.
From next year, new recipients will be selected first from four new growth sectors: economic security, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, climate technology and Korean consumer goods. That marks a change from the current approach, which does not distinguish by sector. The shift aligns with the government's new stance of moving away from one-off, thinly spread support toward concentrating on promising industries and companies. In August, the ministry announced a plan to foster innovative companies in new growth sectors, saying it would select 300 such companies each year and provide a package of support covering R&D, commercialization, financing, exports and personnel. A ministry official said the researcher hiring subsidy program is "applying selection and concentration in line with the aim of growing companies in the four new growth sectors."
The ministry is drawing up ways to link its support for the four new growth sectors with the researcher hiring subsidy program. This year, the program selected 345 new projects — 260 junior and 85 senior. With the new growth researcher hiring subsidy program budgeted at 22.7 billion won ($16.3 million) for next year, unchanged from this year, the figures alone suggest all 300 innovative companies to be selected next year could receive support. Because the program runs for three years, however, researchers selected last year and this year will continue to receive support next year even if they are not in the four new growth sectors.
Some worry the overhaul could worsen research conditions at SMEs outside the capital region. According to the Korea SMEs and Startups Institute, as of 2023 only 32.5% of all SME researchers were based outside the capital region. To ease that concentration in the capital area, the hiring subsidy program sets a 60% share for provincial firms, up from 50% through last year. But it has not yet been decided whether the program to foster the four new growth sectors will apply a provincial quota when selecting the 300 innovative companies, leaving the scale of provincial support under the researcher hiring subsidy program uncertain as well.
Experts say the budget needs to be expanded. Noh Min-sun, a research fellow at the Korea SMEs and Startups Institute, said, "Given the reality that the budget cannot be increased indefinitely, the direction of growing innovative companies through selection and concentration is desirable," while adding, "Considering the importance of researchers at SMEs, the budget itself needs to be increased further." The ministry is also weighing ways to minimize side effects from the overhaul. It is considering differentiating support amounts by region, or allocating remaining funds exclusively to provincial areas after first supporting the four new growth sectors. It also plans to seek an increase during the National Assembly's budget deliberations.
