Turning Research Data and Expertise from Government Institutes into AI Assets... First Support for 15 Projects

NST Announces New Call for "NAIS AI Convergence Research Initiative"
Up to 200 Million Won Per Project
Building AI Agents and Training Datasets
Demonstration Support of Up to 1 Billion Won for Outstanding Projects

A new initiative is being launched to convert research data and specialized knowledge accumulated by government-funded research institutes into datasets and AI agents accessible to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The core objective goes beyond simply introducing AI to individual research projects, aiming instead to build "AI-ready research assets" that can be utilized by other researchers as well.

The National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) and the National Center for AI in Science (NAIS) announced that they are accepting applications for new "Seed-Type" projects under the 2026 NAIS AI Convergence Research Initiative from September 29, 2026, to October 20, 2026.

Reference photo to aid understanding of the article. The Asia Business Daily DB

This initiative combines the specialized research capabilities, data, and infrastructure held by government-funded research institutes with AI technologies from companies, universities, and other research organizations. Research institutes and their affiliated centers under the NST will lead the projects, and each project must include at least one joint research and development institution from the industry, academia, or research sectors.

The outcomes of these projects will include domain-specific AI agents, datasets refined and structured for AI training, and protocols for operating physical AI and autonomous laboratories, all built in ways that allow other researchers to reuse them.

Through 200 million won Seed-Type, up to 1 billion won Demonstration-Type

The initiative will operate in two phases, connecting the Seed-Type and Demonstration-Type stages in a "1+1" model. In the first phase, the Seed-Type supports proof-of-concept (PoC) development for AI-ready research assets, selecting approximately 15 projects and providing up to 200 million won per project for one year.

Outstanding projects may advance to the second Demonstration-Type phase. Up to 30% of the Seed-Type projects will be selected, with each project eligible for annual support ranging from 500 million to 1 billion won, allowing for technology development and validation at a level deployable in real research environments. The scope and availability of funding may change depending on the budget for the subsequent year.

NAIS will provide selected projects with AI expert mentoring, access to graphical processing units (GPUs), common AI models, large language models (LLMs), and application programming interface (API) tools. Developed research assets will be registered on the integrated science AI platform "AI-OS," and outcomes that can be released will be disseminated to the research community.

NAIS Center Director Yoo Yongkyun stated, "We plan to connect outstanding projects that prove their potential at the Seed-Type stage to the Demonstration-Type phase and foster a virtuous cycle where AI-ready research assets are continuously accumulated and leveraged via AI-OS."

NST Chairman Kim Youngsik commented, "As AI is changing the speed and methodology of research in science and technology, it is crucial to transform accumulated domain expertise at government-funded research institutes into reusable AI research assets."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.