Shift from individual scouts to expert institutions in AI, robotics and climate tech
South Korea's Public Procurement Service is expanding its product-scouting program, shifting from individual scouts to specialized institutions with expertise in emerging industries such as AI, robotics and climate technology, as well as private investment.
The agency announced Tuesday it is accepting applications for "specialized scouter institutions" to help identify promising innovative products and support their entry into the public procurement market, drawing on the technology-screening capabilities of research and development organizations and the market and investment expertise of private investors.
The Public Procurement Service designates experts in specific technology fields as innovation product scouts to identify promising products outside the procurement market.
Since the program's launch in 2021, it has operated primarily through individual scouts affiliated with private and public institutions. Last year, the agency began a pilot program designating qualified organizations — rather than individuals — as scouts, selecting institutions with proven expertise and the ability to evaluate innovative products.
Institutional scouts can draw on their organizations' research and development capabilities, specialist personnel, corporate networks, and technology commercialization and investment resources to systematically identify promising innovations that individual scouts would find difficult to reach.
The current recruitment drive aims to expand the institutional scouter program beyond its pilot phase, with the agency seeking institutions in both the emerging-industry and private-investment sectors.
Selected institutions will continuously identify innovative technologies and products and recommend promising candidates to the Public Procurement Service. Recommended products may proceed through preliminary review and demo-day evaluations, potentially leading to official designation as innovative products and entry into the public procurement market through trial purchases.
Applications are open from Tuesday through Sept. 30. Details on how to apply and required documents are available on the Public Procurement Service website and the Innovation Marketplace bulletin board.
Kang Hui-hun, the agency's director of innovative procurement planning, said the program "will play an important role in uncovering promising innovative products that were difficult to find under the existing scouter system, by actively combining the private sector's superior technology-screening capabilities and market validation expertise with public procurement." He added that the agency would "continue to expand cooperation with specialized institutions to actively support outstanding innovative technologies in growing through public procurement."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
