KISTI

What KISTI does

KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information / 한국과학기술정보연구원) is a South Korean government research institute (국립연구기관) established in 1962 and operating under the Ministry of Science and ICT. The institute has been designated as the "ultimate responsibility organization" for science and technology data in Korea, providing the national infrastructure for scientific knowledge, R&D information management, and high-performance computing. It operates an integrated portfolio of ~25 platforms and services organized around four functional pillars: (1) knowledge and data infrastructure (ScienceON as the unified gateway, NTIS for national R&D program management, KoreaScience, KOSEN, Korea DOI Center, DataON, AccessON, KESLI); (2) HPC and research networking (KSC Korea Supercomputing Center, KREONET research network, KI-CLOUD, HEMOS-CLOUD, EDISON, KAFE); (3) intelligent data analysis (MIRIAN, COMPAS, DAP, KMAPS NEO, ASTI, TOD, SmartK2C, STAR Value); and (4) publications and policy intelligence (S&T Policy Report, Data Insights, ASTI Market Insights, R&I Report, Knowledge Infrastructure quarterly, Science Fragrance magazine).

The technology stack is built on AI and HPC, with active in-house research and deployment of ultra-large language models, Mixture-of-Experts architectures, autonomous AI agents for research workflow orchestration, RAG systems, multimodal vision-language models for scientific document understanding, AIOps for HPC optimization, and neural network-based combinatorial optimization for quantum circuit design. Distribution is direct-to-institution across six physical locations in South Korea (Daejeon HQ, Seoul Branch, and four regional support centers covering Honam, Daegu-Gyeongbuk, Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam, and Capital Region/Gangwon), supported by the ASTI consortium network. Business model is government-funded public infrastructure delivery rather than commercial pricing — services are provided primarily as public R&D infrastructure to research institutions, universities, government agencies, and secondarily to industry and SMEs, with no publicly disclosed commercial pricing. Revenue is sourced from national S&T budgets and research project grants allocated through the Ministry of Science and ICT, and specific revenue figures are not disclosed.

Name

KISTI

Legal name

한국과학기술정보연구원

Website

https://kisti.re.kr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1962

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

KISTI is a South Korean government research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, operating national science and technology information infrastructure since 1962, including the ScienceON knowledge platform, NTIS, Korea Supercomputing Center, and KREONET research network for research institutions, universities, and government agencies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Government Research Information Infrastructure

NAICS

Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416), Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (54), Other Computer Related Services (541519)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Science, Technology & Innovation Administration (National R&D Policy) (BPAIAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Compliance, Regulatory & Audit Reporting (State/Federal/Ofsted-style) (EDADAIAF)

Keywords

• National science information infrastructure
• Research data management platforms
• High performance computing services
• Scientific literature database access
• R&D information analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Daejeon

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

KISTI builds and operates Korea's national science and technology information infrastructure, providing integrated platforms for scientific literature access (ScienceON), national R&D information management (NTIS), high-performance computing (KSC/KREONET), AI-based data analytics (EDISON, MIRIAN, COMPAS, DAP, KMAPS NEO), DOI registration, and technology market intelligence (ASTI). The institute serves as Korea's "science and technology data ultimate responsibility organization," delivering software platforms, HPC resources, research networks, and analytical services primarily to research institutions, universities, and government agencies.

Product overview

KISTI operates as a platform-plus-services architecture providing science and technology information infrastructure for South Korea. The core offerings include: (1) ScienceON as the unified gateway to scientific literature and research data; (2) NTIS for national R&D information management; (3) KSC/KREONET for HPC and research networking; (4) EDISON, MIRIAN, COMPAS, DAP, and KMAPS NEO as data analysis and intelligence platforms; (5) ASTI for market intelligence; and (6) various supporting platforms including AccessON, DataON, Korea DOI Center, KOSEN, and STAR Value. KISTI publishes research reports (S&T Policy Report, DATA 인사이트, ASTI 마켓 인사이트, R&I Report), periodicals (지식정보인프라, 과학향기), and annual reports. The institution leverages AI and HPC to lead R&D innovation, with current research directions in large language models, autonomous agents, quantum computing, and multimodal AI.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ScienceON: Science and Technology Knowledge Infrastructure Integrated Service Platform
• NTIS
• KoreaScience
• KOSEN
• KREONET
• EDISON
• MIRIAN
• ASTI
• KSC
• COMPAS
• DataON
• AccessON
• KISTI의 과학향기

Products and services

• ScienceON Science and technology knowledge infrastructure integrated service platform providing unified access to scientific literature, research data, and academic resources for Korean researchers.
• NTIS (National Science & Technology Information Service) National Science & Technology Knowledge Information Service providing comprehensive R&D information management, research task management, and national research development program tracking for government agencies and researchers.
• KSC (Korea Supercomputing Center) National supercomputing center providing HPC resources, supercomputing services, and technical support to research institutions, universities, and industry.
• KREONET Korea Research Environment Open Network providing research network infrastructure and high-speed connectivity for academic and research institutions.
• EDISON Science and technology data analysis platform providing computational science and engineering simulation services for researchers.
• ASTI (Science & Technology Information Council) Science and technology information council providing market analysis, technology intelligence, and industry trend reports for domestic and international technology markets.
• MIRIAN Intelligent data analysis platform for science and technology information providing analytics and insights for researchers.
• COMPAS Competitive intelligence analysis service providing market analysis and technology intelligence for organizations.
• DAP (Data Analysis Platform) Intelligent data analysis platform providing data analytics and visualization services for research data.
• KMAPS NEO Knowledge mapping and analysis platform for technology landscape and patent analysis.
• AccessON Access management and authentication service for KISTI platforms.
• DataON Data management and sharing platform for research data.
• Korea DOI Center Digital Object Identifier registration and management service for Korean scholarly publications.
• STAR Value Technology valuation and assessment service for organizations.
• KOSEN Korean scientific research contribution tracking and collaboration network platform.
• KESLI Korean electronic library consortium system for resource sharing across member institutions.
• KI-CLOUD Cloud computing infrastructure service for research institutions.
• HEMOS-CLOUD Cloud-based HPC service for scientific computing.
• KoreaScience Korean scientific journal database and literature search service for researchers.
• TOD Technology opportunity discovery platform for identifying research trends and opportunities.
• SmartK2C Smart knowledge-to-commercialization platform supporting technology transfer from research to industry.
• 성과확산플랫폼 (Research Performance Dissemination Platform) Research performance dissemination platform for viewing KISTI research outcomes and intellectual property.
• KAFE Korea HPC Forum for Education providing HPC training and education services.
• 과학데이터교육센터 (Science Data Education Center) Science data education center providing training on data management and analysis.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability12 records

Feature15 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• National Computational Infrastructure (NCI Australia): Australia's national HPC facility, supported by government and co-investment, providing supercomputing and data services to research communities. Functionally analogous to KISTI's KREONET + KSC integrated national research computing stack.
• Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), Germany: Operates one of Europe's leading HPC centers (JURECA/JUWELS) serving national research communities with supercomputing resources and data services. Comparable to KISTI's Korea Supercomputing Center (KSC) as a government-mandated national HPC and scientific computing provider.
• National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan: Japan's national informatics institute operating NII-REINZ (academic infrastructure), CiNii (literature platform), and HPCI (supercomputing). Both NII and KISTI serve as designated government-backed institutes providing integrated national research information and HPC infrastructure with comparable platform architectures.
• National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore: Singapore's national HPC center providing supercomputing resources to researchers. Direct functional peer to KISTI's KSC in delivering national supercomputing infrastructure as a government-backed resource provider.
• TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, Germany: Germany's national library for science and technology, providing research information services, scientific literature platforms, and data management. Comparable to ScienceON and KoreaScience as a national scientific knowledge infrastructure provider.
• SURF, Netherlands: Dutch collaborative organization for ICT in education and research, operating the national research network (similar to KREONET) and supercomputing services. Both serve as national research-network-and-HPC providers to universities and research institutions.

Regional players

• Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), University of Texas: US supercomputing center serving primarily North American academic and research users, with comparable HPC infrastructure and research-data services. Regional peer given US-only footprint versus Korea-only KISTI.
• CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland: Finnish national HPC and data management center providing supercomputing (LUMI) and research ICT services. Regionally limited to Finland but functionally parallel to KREONET + KSC architecture.

Broad incumbents

• Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – Libraries and Information Services: A larger and broader national research organization providing scientific information infrastructure across China. While broader than KISTI's scope, CAS operates comparable literature/information platforms and supercomputing systems serving the national R&D ecosystem.
• RIKEN, Japan: Large Japanese government research institute with HPC capabilities (Fugaku supercomputer predecessor systems) and national science infrastructure. BROAD_INCUMBENT given RIKEN's wider research portfolio, but its supercomputing function is comparable to KSC.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCljoEQ1t7mLVx0W3EdqoOgQ/videos
• Facebookfacebook.com/withkisti
• Xx.com/withkisti
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kisti

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about KISTI