Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) has been selected in the final round of the "2022 Industrial Innovation Infrastructure Establishment Project" competition supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

This program establishes R&D infrastructure at universities and public institutions to support technology innovation activities such as demonstration and commercialization by small and medium-sized enterprises that find it difficult to build such infrastructure themselves. It is a future-technology-leading type (supporting the construction of specialized research infrastructure focused on specific technology development to lead foundational and advanced industrial technologies) and will support a total of 18 projects.

Among these, JBNU, in collaboration with North Jeolla Province, Jeonju City, the Jeongeup Safety Evaluation Research Institute, and Jeonbuk National University Hospital, applied for the "Mechano-Bioactive Materials Innovative Medical Device Demonstration Infrastructure Project" and was honored to be finally selected.

The Mechano-Bioactive Materials Innovative Medical Device Demonstration Infrastructure Project will receive a budget of KRW 21.5 billion over five years from this year through 2026. JBNU will establish a demonstration support center and equipment on its Jeonju Campus to provide development support for manufacturing innovative medical devices based on mechano-bioactive materials and to support productization. The center will support activities from the exploration and discovery of mechano-bioactive materials to companies' technology development, demonstration, and commercialization.

The project's details include constructing a center composed of a Materials Synthesis Development Laboratory and a Demonstration and Evaluation Laboratory, establishing approximately 25 specialized pieces of equipment, and providing corporate support such as prototype/material development assistance, physicochemical evaluation certification and GLP evaluation certification, and usability testing support for innovative medical devices. The center is planned to be built adjacent to the Interventional Mechano-Bio Technology Convergence Research Center, which has been under development since 2019.

Through linkage with the Interventional Mechano-Bio Technology Convergence Research Center to be established earlier, the Mechano-Bioactive Materials Innovative Medical Device Demonstration Center will be able to provide end-to-end support for companies across the entire medical device commercialization cycle, from material development and device fabrication to physicochemical evaluation, GLP-based biological safety assessment, and usability evaluation.

This will enable JBNU to become the nation's first industrial hub specialized in innovative interventional medical devices and is expected to contribute to revitalizing the regional innovative medical device industry, including the relocation of related companies and strengthening the competitiveness of local firms.

President Kim Dong-won said, "This project is a highly significant and very successful model of university–local government collaboration, with JBNU, North Jeolla Province, and Jeonju City working organically from project planning through evaluation to achieve final selection." He added, "Through this project, JBNU will be able to take the lead nationally in the mechano-bio innovative medical device industry. We will do our utmost to provide support so that JBNU can present a new model of a research-focused regional national university that supports many related medical device companies and enables technological innovation."