Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 18th that it has been selected as the lead institution for the third cohort of the "Lab Startup Innovation Group" under the Tech-Score program, a public technology-based market-linked startup exploration support initiative promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Technology & Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (COMPA).
With this selection, GIST will receive approximately 1.5 billion won annually from 2026 to 2030, totaling 7.5 billion won, to expand support for lab-based startups built on public research outcomes.
The program aims to verify the commercialization potential of research outcomes and revitalize technology-based startups by providing market validation, entrepreneurship education, mentoring, and prototype production support to help research accumulated in university and government-funded research institute laboratories reach actual markets.
GIST has contributed to building a university lab-based startup ecosystem by operating the second-cohort Lab Startup Innovation Group from 2021 to 2025.
The institute selected approximately 20 lab startup exploration teams annually and operated entrepreneurship education and mentoring programs focused on market validation.
With this selection as the lead institution for the third Tech-Score program, GIST plans to serve as a regional hub systematically supporting startups based on public research outcomes in the Honam region.
Eligible participants include prospective startup teams composed of undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students (including those on leave) from universities in the Honam region who wish to start businesses, postdoctoral researchers, and researchers from government-funded research institutes.
"This selection reaffirms GIST's accumulated capabilities in startup support," said Kwon In-chan, Director of GIST's Science and Technology Innovation Group (GTI). "We will do our best to nurture deep-tech startups with market competitiveness by ensuring that excellent public research outcomes from universities and research institutions in the Honam region do not remain in laboratories but are validated and can grow in actual markets."
Meanwhile, GIST's Science and Technology Innovation Group operates various startup support programs centered on its Entrepreneurship Promotion Office, including startup supporters, student entrepreneurship clubs, startup mini-schools, and practical and simulated startup programs, working to spread technology-based startup culture and cultivate prospective entrepreneurs.