The final round of ‘GRAVITY 2026,’ a student startup competition jointly hosted by Korea’s four leading science and technology academies, will be held on September 3 at KAIST in Daejeon. With 310 teams applying this year for a competition ratio of 15.5 to 1, the 20 teams that cleared the preliminary and main rounds will demonstrate their commercialization capabilities on the finals stage.
 [코리안투데이] The final round of the four science academies’ joint startup league ‘GRAVITY 2026’ © 장형임 기자 |
The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) announced that it will hold the final round of the ‘Four Science and Technology Academies’ Joint Startup League: GRAVITY 2026′ on September 3 at KAIST (President Bae Choong-sik). The competition is co-hosted by the four science academies — KAIST, GIST, DGIST and UNIST — and sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
‘GRAVITY 2026’ is a competition that identifies aspiring and early-stage student startup teams, spanning both undergraduate and graduate students at the science academies, and helps their technology-based startup ideas lead to commercialization and follow-on investment. The competition aims to build a startup platform connecting the research achievements of the four startup cities with the ideas of local students, and to spread a culture of taking on entrepreneurship from one’s student years.
This year, a total of 310 teams applied, marking strong interest. Drawing on the 39.8 billion won supplementary budget for deep-tech startup support at the four science academies, organized this past April, the competition was pursued on its largest scale ever. Whereas in the past around eight teams were supported — two per academy — this year 140 teams in total were identified, 35 per academy, offering opportunities to more student entrepreneurs.
The competition was operated in two divisions — an ‘undergraduate league’ and a ‘graduate league’ — in consideration of differences in participants’ entrepreneurial capabilities and technological maturity. Running the leagues from this past June, the organizers systematically provided expert mentoring, tailored startup education and startup activity funds.
A total of 20 teams advanced to the finals on this day, comprising 10 teams from the undergraduate league and 10 from the graduate league. Undergraduate-league finalists present service-oriented startup ideas based on AI, big data and ICT, while graduate-league finalists showcase lab-based original-technology business models in fields such as semiconductors, bio-healthcare and optical technology.
The finalist teams present the distinctiveness of their technologies, their market-entry strategies and their commercialization plans in the form of IR pitching. The evaluation is handled by a panel of startup and investment experts from firms including Kakao Ventures, Bluepoint and Korea Investment Accelerator, who comprehensively assess the distinctiveness, marketability and growth potential of the technologies and business models.
Through this process, the 10 outstanding teams ultimately selected (five each from the undergraduate and graduate divisions) will receive, by rank, the Minister of Science and ICT Award, the science academy presidents’ awards and the science academy startup center directors’ awards, along with prize money of up to 200 million won. In addition, the selected companies will receive follow-on support including global accelerating programs, overseas proof-of-concept (PoC) and investment linkage.
Ahead of the finals proper, the Ministry of Science and ICT will also unveil its ‘Five Directions for Deep-Tech Startup Support at the Four Science Academies.’ With this supplementary budget as a turning point — and with the GIST, DGIST and UNIST startup centers newly established this past July, alongside the KAIST startup center that has been in operation since 2014 — the ministry has prepared a support vision spanning the entire cycle from company discovery to overseas market entry.
The five directions consist of: ‘discovery,’ organically linking startup resources such as startup centers, technology transfer and commercialization organizations (TLOs) and technology holding companies; ‘technology maturation,’ using shared infrastructure to reduce the time and cost of prototype development; ‘global entry,’ expanding on-site validation opportunities at overseas bases to promote overseas investment attraction; ‘talent development,’ expanding startup education based on problem-solving and original technology; and ‘expansion,’ attracting outstanding overseas student entrepreneurs to Korea and exporting domestic deep-tech technologies abroad. Based on these directions, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to set detailed action tasks and advance its support system.
Kim Sung-soo, Director-General for R&D Policy, said at the opening ceremony, ‘This GRAVITY 2026 is a symbolic occasion that shows how the Republic of Korea’s finest research capabilities lead to market innovation,’ adding, ‘We will continue to provide unstinting support so that young scientists — including those at the four science academies — can take on entrepreneurship without fear and thrive on the global stage.’
The finals are scheduled to conclude around 6 p.m. on this day, and the final award results can be found on the KAIST startup center website (https://startup.kaist.ac.kr).
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