- Ministry of Science and ICT will host the 「2021 K-Metaverse Awards」
- Discovers and awards leading companies, entrepreneurs, and contents and solutions in the metaverse platform field
- Focusing on key element technologies for building metaverse platforms such as virtual fusion technology (XR), authoring tool (SDK), data, non-fungible token (NFT), digital human, artificial intelligence engine, and 3D image.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lim, Hye-sook) announced that the "2021 2nd Half Korea Metaverse Awards" will begin on October 6 to discover leaders in the "metaverse" industry.

Considering that the creation of a platform-oriented metaverse ecosystem has been important recently, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to discover and award promising domestic companies, entrepreneurs, content and solutions with expertise and excellence in key element technologies used to build metaverse platforms.

In particular, attention is being paid to key element technologies for building metaverse platforms such as virtual fusion technology (XR), authoring tool (SDK), data, non-fungible token (NFT), digital humans, artificial intelligence engines, and 3D images.

The awards will select leaders in three categories of content and solutions, including ▲ companies with high contributions to global industrial contribution and quality of life for the people, ▲ companies and innovative entrepreneurs who have created excellent business results based on creative ideas. The 1st place will be given prize money (2 million won each).

In addition, the winners will get opportunities to promote corporate performance, participate in the KMF (Korea Metaverse Festival), the largest exhibition in the field of virtual reality in Korea, and link digital content overseas expansion support projects. The participation period is from October 6 to November 5.

Meanwhile, the Metaverse Awards, which was held for the first time in the first half of this year, applied for a total of 49 teams in the field of virtual fusion technology and selected the final 9 teams after evaluation by the review committee.

Among them, △Skonec Entertainment, which developed large-space virtual reality (VR) technology, won the Ministerial Award in the corporate field, △ Retinar, which has its own augmented reality (AR) device technology, and △ Giant Step, which has real-time three-dimensional (3D) content solutions.

Kim Jung-sam, a software policy officer at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "In order for an excellent metaverse platform to be developed, high-quality core element technologies must be supported. We will continue to support domestic companies in the metaverse field to gain global competitiveness."

Details of the contest for the Korea Expansion Virtual World Awards in the second half of 2021 can be found on the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT (http://www.msit.go.kr), the Information and Communication Industry Promotion Agency (http://www.nipa.kr), and the Korea Virtual Reality Industry Association (http://kvra.kr).

Photo: The Ministry of Science and ICT

Reported by Smart City Today

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