The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Han Sung-sook) announced that it will be recruiting startups to participate in the '2026 Startup-Centered University Support Project' from Tuesday, March 3rd to Monday, March 23rd at 4:00 PM.
The Entrepreneurship-Focused University Support Project focuses on universities with strong entrepreneurship support capabilities. It leverages their technology, infrastructure, and industry-academia collaboration networks to support regionally based and university-originated startups. This year, the program plans to support a total of 757 startups through 11 universities in six regions.
Participating institutions by university are Hanyang University and Sungkyunkwan University in the metropolitan area, Hoseo University, Hannam University, and Chungbuk National University in the Chungcheong area, Chonbuk National University and Chonnam National University in the Honam area, Kangwon National University in the Gangwon area, Daegu University in the Daegyeong area, and Pusan National University and Gyeongsang National University in the southeastern area.
Support types are divided into "regional-based" and "university-based." The regional-based program provides up to KRW 100 million in commercialization funds and startup support programs to startups located within the region. Young entrepreneurs aged 39 or younger are given priority for selection, with more than 60% of selected companies selected. The university-based program, newly established this year, provides up to KRW 150 million in commercialization funds, mentoring, investment attraction, and global expansion support programs to startups based on university technology and research achievements.
Applications are accepted through the K-Startup website , and final applicants are selected through document and presentation evaluations. Furthermore, the existing "First-Time Youth Startup Program" has been integrated into the "Everyone's Startup Project," providing one-stop support from ideation to commercialization.
Kyung-Won Cho, Director of Startup Policy, said, “We will strengthen support for youth entrepreneurship by expanding the youth priority selection ratio and granting extra points to startups that challenge again, and we will foster startup-centered universities as regional startup hubs.”
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.