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< Promotional Poster for the Startup League >
KAIST announced on May 21st that "GRAVITY 2026," an integrated student startup league co-hosted with GIST, DGIST , and UNIST , is officially opening recruitment for participants.
The program name "GRAVITY" is inspired by the concept of gravity, and it was named to signify a platform that pulls together students who take on challenges in innovation and entrepreneurship.
This program is the largest united startup league among science and technology institutes in Korea, designed to discover prospective and early-stage startup teams with excellent science and technology-based startup items and to support their connection to global market expansion.
"GRAVITY 2026" is divided into an undergraduate track and a graduate track, and its key feature is that it goes beyond a simple competition, being designed to lead to actual entrepreneurship and investment attraction.
In particular, it provides full-lifecycle support—including startup activity funds, expert mentoring, and global accelerating programs—for student startup teams centered around deep-tech sectors such as AI, bio/healthcare, aerospace, and robotics.
This league will operate in a phased structure, moving from individual institution preliminaries and finals to the integrated semi-finals and finals. A total of 140 teams will be selected to receive tailored mentoring and startup activity funds. The final 10 selected outstanding teams will be provided with an opportunity to participate in an overseas accelerating program linked with global VCs, along with prize money totaling up to 200 million KRW.
An official from the four science and technology institutes stated, "GRAVITY 2026 goes beyond a simple student startup competition to become an integrated platform that shapes the future of South Korea's deep-tech startup ecosystem. Through cooperation among the institutes, we plan to build regional technology startup networks and actively support students challenging tech-based startups so they can expand into the global market."
The eligibility for participation includes prospective startup teams and early-stage startup teams within 5 years of establishment, which consist of undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni belonging to the four major science and technology institutes (KAIST, GIST, DGIST, UNIST). Application submissions are open from May 21, 2026, to June 10, 2026, via the online application link of each respective institution. However, DGIST will extend its application period until June 15, taking its academic schedule into consideration.
Kwang-Hyung Lee, President of KAIST, said, "To ensure that GRAVITY 2026 can leap forward as a practical startup platform where deep-tech startup talents who will lead South Korea's future industries can grow, KAIST, together with GIST, DGIST, and UNIST, will actively support students' excellent technologies so that they can expand into the global market." He added, "We will strive to nurture global startup talents who challenge the world market."
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