전담기관 (specialised institution)

A 전담기관 is the agency a Korean ministry delegates a programme to. The ministry sets policy and budget; the specialised institution writes the call, evaluates the proposals, signs the agreement, pays and monitors delivery.

This is why so many Korean call titles end in IITP, KEIT, KEITI or KISA. IITP handles information and communications technology, KEIT industrial technology, KEITI environment, KISA internet and information security. The name in the title is not a topic label. It names who will read your proposal and under whose procedures.

Two calls from the same ministry, delegated to two institutions, can differ in format, evaluation practice, reporting and even the interpretation of shared rules. Researchers who work regularly with one institution know its conventions, and that familiarity is a genuine advantage that outsiders systematically underestimate.

There is no European equivalent of the naming habit, which is why a list of Korean calls looks repetitive to a foreign reader, the same institution abbreviation recurring across unrelated subjects. The closest analogue is the American pattern where the operating agency, not the parent department, defines the process.

For a foreign partner the practical implication is to find out which institution runs the programme and what it has funded before. That is what NTIS is for, and it is a more reliable guide to what will be funded than the announcement itself.