The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MSIT) have been jointly pursuing the next-generation semiconductor R&D project since last year and have finally passed the Preliminary Feasibility Study as confirmed on the 14th. As early as this month, an official announcement will be made.
However, it was reported that the budget approved by the Ministry of Economy and Finance was reduced by half from the budget amount originally proposed by these ministries. MOTIE and MSIT suggested that a total of 750 trillion won would be needed for the Preliminary Feasibility Study. Most of the R&D period is 10 years, except for the system semiconductor field (7 years), which involves some commercialization tasks.
An official said, "It is known that the final approved amount after screening duplicate projects is between 750 billion won and 800 billion won. Despite the reduction, it is assured that new budgets are being created in the semiconductor field.”
The Preliminary Feasibility Study is a system that evaluates feasibility and the possibility before conducting national R&D projects that require more than 50 billion won as the total project cost and more than 30 billion won of the national budget.
The next generation semiconductor R&D Preliminary Feasibility Study project of both ministries had experienced many roadblocks. Last year, MOTIE and MSIT individually applied for an R&D Preliminary Feasibility Study project worth 1 trillion won. However, neither passed even the first stage, the technical evaluation. This happened in last June. The basic cause was that both ministries applied for the Preliminary Feasibility Study individually with the same keyword "Semiconductor". Although they worked together for the project planning, later they went on their own ways with a conflict of opinion.
Upon failing to pass even the first stage, the technical evaluation, of the Preliminary Feasibility Study, MOTIE and MSIT agreed to jointly apply for the Preliminary Feasibility Study by agreeing on certain terms. The amount of application had been lowered to 750 trillion won for each ministry (total of 1.5 trillion won) from 1 trillion won for each (total 2 trillion won). The final amount that has been passed is reduced by half from this amount.
The next-generation semiconductor R & D budget, which has passed this time, is expected to be divided into MOTIE-oriented commercialization development project and MSIT-oriented long-term source technology research project. It is known that various detailed R&D tasks will come out in the fields of semiconductor design, device, and production fields.
An industry representative said, "We have not had new budget resources for the government's semiconductor R&D in a long time. We hope that our country’s technological competitiveness will be upgraded by passing the Preliminary Feasibility Study."