Up to KRW 100 Million Available for Startups Using Public Data to Prevent Festival Safety Accidents

[Financial News] The government will make data held by public institutions available to startups to support the development and commercialization of new services. The initiative aims to connect public institutions' efforts to address current challenges with startups' technology validation, ensuring that public data leads to actual business opportunities.
 According to industry sources on the 14th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is recruiting startups through October 6 to participate in the 'Public Data Utilization Support' program, which supports technology validation and commercialization using public data.
 The program will be carried out through two tracks: a public institution challenge proposal track, in which public institutions propose issues they want to address, and a startup challenge proposal track, in which startups directly propose challenges.
 In August, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups solicited collaboration projects from public institutions and selected 22 projects from 18 institutions.
 The Ministry of Data and Statistics proposed developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model to predict population density in major areas during events such as festivals and holidays. The plan is to prevent safety accidents caused by crowding and use the data to establish data-driven public safety policies.
 Korea Expressway Corporation proposed developing technology that uses closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to detect rain and snow conditions and prepare for black ice on roads.
 The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to select approximately 20 startups to carry out challenges proposed by public institutions.
 The selected startups will receive up to KRW 100 million in commercialization funding, which can be used for technology validation and prototype production through collaboration with public institutions.
 The ministry will also link the startups to follow-up technology-development programs, including the Startup Growth Technology Development Program and the Public-Private Joint Technology Commercialization Program. The Startup Growth Technology Development Program provides up to KRW 200 million for up to 18 months, while the Public-Private Joint Technology Commercialization Program provides up to KRW 600 million for up to two years.
 The startup challenge proposal track, through which startups directly propose projects to use unpublished data held by public institutions, will also be operated. A total of 63 startups applied through this track, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is working with the National Information Society Agency (NIA)'s Corporate Public Data Problem-Solving Support Center to secure the necessary public data.
 Jo Gyeong-won, director general for startup policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We will actively support startup growth by expanding access to public data that is in high demand among businesses and promoting open innovation, so that these achievements can lead to the spread of the startup boom."
[email protected] Kim Hyeon-cheol Reporter