DAEJEON — Deep tech developed at South Korea's state-funded research institutes is moving toward commercialization through teams that pair students with their academic advisers.
The University of Science and Technology (UST) said on the 15th that it held a startup track review at the conference hall of its dormitory on the 14th and selected four new teams. The newly chosen teams are RadiAI of the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) School, HyPER of the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) School, the DED Process Development Team of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) School and CS LAB of the KITECH School.
They join five teams selected in June — UST Guardian of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) School, MH NOVA of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) School, KinetiCloud of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) School, AIS of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) School and Plasma Aqua of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) School — bringing the total to nine teams confirmed for the 2026 UST startup track.
Each of the nine teams will receive 50 million won in startup project funding and will be eligible for eased degree requirements tailored to entrepreneurs. Doctoral students who switch to the startup track can substitute requirements such as incorporating a company for the graduation requirement of publishing at least one first-author paper in an SCIE-indexed journal. Master's students can replace the thesis submission requirement with a startup report, known as a practicum report, allowing them to focus on their businesses. The teams also receive benefits including a study tour to CES in the United States aimed at strengthening startups built on advanced technology.
The UST startup track is a new program that supports first-author UST students, who are central to generating research results at state-funded research institutes, and their academic advisers, who serve as principal investigators, in forming teams and launching companies based on original technologies developed at those institutes. UST describes it as a distinctive model of deep tech startups led jointly by teachers and students, in which the two sides share roles and equity and the researchers who best understand the philosophy and context of the technology lead commercialization themselves.
"We will operate a systematic support system that guarantees both the first attempt and a second chance, and we will actively back deep tech that has left the labs of state-funded research institutes so it can be reborn as new value in the market," UST President Kang Dae-im said.