Design of a Startup Incubation Program to Promote Startups at Government-funded Research Institutes

Abstract

With the increasing emphasis on the importance of deep technology and deep science startups, it is worthwhile to focus on startups founded by researchers at government-funded research institutes, which have abundant research resources and specialize in large-scale technology and basic research. Startups have traditionally been regarded as a technology commercialization method to increase the research productivity of government-funded research institutes. However, unlike licenses or technology transfers that generate revenue through technology fees at the time of transaction, support organizations and financial incentives for researchers are still insufficiently established. Consequently, government-funded research institutes remain passive in incubating startups, limited to simple startup approval and initial incubation. Herein, we review previous studies on the definition of technology commercialization, the importance of starting research institutes, the startup childcare policy, and the startup support program of early government-funded research institutes. Through a case study of the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, a representative example in this field, we not only provide a diagnostic tool for evaluating startup support programs in government-funded research institutes but also identify key areas for future improvement in supporting researcher-led startups. As a frame for diagnosing the current state of these programs, we propose components such as entrepreneurship education, startup funding, startup process education, startup infrastructure construction, and strategies for exit and reorganization, which form the startup incubation ecosystem of government-funded research institutes. An analysis revealed that the startup incubation program of the Electronic Communication Research Institute lacked the components for establishing, exiting, and organizing the startup infrastructure. Seemingly, institutional will, policies, and legal support should be provided to compensate for these points. In the future, other government-funded research institutes will be able to use these frames to diagnose the current situation and identify opportunities for improvements.