The 2020 Innopolis Campus Project is underway with local university students, including Postechians, who are interested in start-ups. The 2020 Innopolis Campus Project is conducted by the Pohang Innovation Cluster Innopolis Campus Foundation to bind POSTECH’s R&BD competency and infrastructure with the local community’s support and change innovative ideas into technology-based start-ups. The 2020 Innopolis Campus Project is hosted by the POSTECH Student Entrepreneurship Team which provides various start-up programs for Postechians.
INNOPOLIS is a technology commercialization platform and R&D-focused innovation cluster. Starting with Daedeok INNOPOLIS, designated in 2005, there are currently five INNOPOLISes each located in Daedeok, Gwangju, Daegu, Busan, and Jeonbuk. Along with these five INNOPOLISes, there are sub-regional INNOTOWNs—compact local innovation clusters—that will lead to regional economic growth through science and technology innovation. The Pohang Innovation Cluster Innopolis Campus Foundation (also referred to as Innopolis Campus Foundation), designated in August 2019, is one of the six INNOTOWNs.
The executive director of the Innopolis Campus Foundation, Kim Sang-wu, shared that the foundation’s goal is to “contribute to developing Pohang into a high-tech industrial science city and to promote a regional technology start-up ecosystem.” To achieve these goals, the Innopolis Campus Foundation currently holds the 2020 Innopolis Campus Project which includes the following programs: Discovering and Training Pre-entrepreneurs and Cultural Diffusion for Entrepreneurship and Startup Friendly Atmosphere.
The Discovering and Training Pre-entrepreneurs program educates pre-entrepreneurs about theoretical backgrounds of start-ups and provides various subprograms to apply such learnings. The program consists of three subprograms. The first subprogram is the Entrepreneurship Education for Youth and Pre-entrepreneurs program which focuses on instructing participants regarding start-ups. A Certificate for Kauffman FastTrac is awarded to participants who finish the program. The second subprogram provides applicants the opportunity to develop their business model through 1:1 mentoring from VCs (venture capitalists) and accelerators. There is also a business model contest where selected teams are granted financial aid and opportunities to partake in a growth support program. The last subprogram, which includes the Innopolis-Value Plus Program, supports promising start-ups to early-commercialize their product and create public relations.
The Cultural Diffusion for Entrepreneurship and Startup Friendly Atmosphere program aims to cultivate a start-up atmosphere and consists of the Pohang Startup Club, All That Startup program, Innopolis Makerton with Geekble, and Tech + Community program. The Pohang Startup Club and All That Startup program encourage local university students, including Postechians, to actively change their ideas into small-sized start-ups. Tech + Community program invites venture entrepreneurs and capitalists for talk shows and special lectures.
The POSTECH Student Entrepreneurship Team stated, “the 2020 Innopolis Campus Project provides various programs to support successful start-ups by Pohang-based pre-entrepreneurs, including POSTECH students” and urged for more participation in their start-up full life cycle support project. Although the 2020 Innopolis Campus Project has already started, there is a scouter recommendation policy for teams or individuals to join later. Starting with the 2020 Innopolis Campus Project, the Innopolis Campus Project plans to continue to 2025 and possibly for longer.