The Ministry of SMEs and Startups hosted the AroundX Open Innovation Seminar at the COMEUP 2025 event in Seoul.
The event gathered global companies and startups to share their achievements and plans, with the first part featuring performance presentations and the second part outlining next year’s plans.
Next year, four new global companies, including Mercedes-Benz, Astellas, OpenAI, and HP, will join the program.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the ‘OpenData X AI Challenge’ opening ceremony at COEX in Seoul with 15 AI startups.
The challenge aims to discover practical AI solutions by providing public institution data to AI startups.
The selected startups will begin developing AI models, with user experience evaluations and final presentations scheduled for January next year.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the ‘Challenge! K-Startup 2025’ grand finale at COEX in Seoul from December 10 to 12, selecting 20 final winners and awarding a total prize of 1.38 billion KRW.
This year’s competition saw a record participation of 7,377 teams, with a competition rate of 369 to 1.
Winners will receive not only prizes and certificates but also additional support benefits in startup support programs.
The Patent Tribunal is holding a special forum at the Korean Patent Attorneys Association to discuss the current status and challenges of patent cancellation and invalidity trials.
The forum aims to discuss improvements to the system for promptly correcting erroneously granted patents.
Patent Tribunal Chief Seo Eul-soo stated that this forum will contribute to creating a robust patent ecosystem and refining the trial system.
Korea Polytechnics and KAIST have initiated collaboration to foster talent in physical AI.
The two institutions conducted cross-lectures combining theory and practice as a pilot project.
This collaboration aims to enhance AI utilization in small and medium-sized manufacturing sites and innovate the domestic manufacturing industry.
The Korea Industrial Human Resources Corporation held a council meeting on the National Competency Standards (NCS) in Seoul on the 12th.
Ten institutions, including the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employers Federation, participated to share key project progress and explore collaboration methods.
The corporation has built a platform connecting various job experience data and plans to offer services like the job competency drawer.