KTC, Establishment of the First and Largest Sleep Industry Promotion Center in South Korea
KTC, Establishment of the First and Largest Sleep Industry Promotion Center in South Korea
"Establishment of the First Publicly-funded Sleep Industry Hub for Comprehensive Business Support"
"Building the Best Sleep Industry Infrastructure, Supporting Enhancement of Companies' Export Capacities"
▲Group Photo of the Sleep Industry Promotion Center Opening Ceremony (from the left, 3rd to right: Chairman Kim Ki-chan of KTC, Chairperson Kim Hee-young of Asan City Council, Director An Sung-il of KTC, Governor Kim Tae-heum of Chungcheongnam-do, Mayor Park Kyung-gwi of Asan City)
The Korea Testing & Research Institute for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (Director An Sung-il, hereinafter referred to as KTC) announced that it held the opening ceremony for the Sleep Industry Promotion Center (hereinafter referred to as the Sleep Center) on the 15th (Friday) at the R&D Convergence Zone in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, to coincide with the "World Sleep Day" designated by the World Sleep Society to raise awareness of the importance of sleep.
The opening ceremony was attended by about 100 guests, including Kim Tae-heum, Governor of Chungcheongnam-do, Park Kyung-gwi, Mayor of Asan City, Lee Myung-soo, a member of the National Assembly from the People Power Party, Kim Hee-young, Chairperson of the Asan City Council, Kim Yong-ha, Vice President of Soonchunhyang University, and Director An Sung-il of KTC.
KTC, in collaboration with Chungnam Techno Park, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, and Seoul National University Hospital, has invested approximately 246 billion won in total project costs from 2020 to 2023 to establish the Sleep Center with a basement floor and three above-ground floors. The main facilities include sleep laboratories, video-based behavior analysis rooms, environmental reliability testing laboratories, and electrical safety testing laboratories, aimed at providing specialized and practical research and testing facilities to support sleep-related companies. The Sleep Center is expected to provide scientific validation of the efficacy of sleep-tech devices, devices, and consumer goods, and to offer the first domestic clinical evidence-based support services for sleep-related companies.
Furthermore, the Sleep Center will analyze the body shape, pressure, and various sleep environments (temperature, humidity, pressure, oxygen concentration, etc.) before and after using sleep products to confirm their impact on sleep and to utilize the research for product efficacy evaluation. It plans to provide basic data to clients who wish to diagnose sleep quality and sleep disorders by measuring various physiological signals during sleep, and to integrate measurements of various bodily changes in sleeping subjects to derive comprehensive results for use in the field of sleep impact research.
Products in the booming sleep industry, classified as new bio-industry, include functional mattresses, pillows, and bed pads that induce sound sleep; sleep-inducing IT products such as sleep induction, emotional lighting, and mental care systems; sleep-assist medical devices and sleep clinics such as pressure devices and sleep masks; and sleep-inducing and sleep-improving lifestyle products such as sleep masks, foot baths, and sleep-inducing foods. KTC plans to expand its testing and evaluation areas to cover existing products and potential fields, leading the domestic and international sleep industry testing and certification markets.
Building upon its capabilities in bio-health product testing, evaluation, and licensing support, KTC plans to create and expand new markets in the sleep industry through the Sleep Center. It plans to register as a KOLAS-certified testing organization in the fields of usability and software evaluation, which are essential requirements to provide tailored global certification services to domestic companies in the first half of this year. Through this, it is expected to contribute to the expansion of companies' overseas market entry by providing not only safety but also efficacy verification support for products.
Director An Sung-il of KTC said, "The global sleep industry market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.47% from $598 billion (about 78 trillion won) in 2020 to $1,119 billion (about 147 trillion won) in 2030." He added, "Based on 55 years of testing, certification, and research experience, KTC will establish and operate a sleep industry technical support platform and strengthen companies' export capabilities through slip-tech clinical evidence-based overseas certification support projects." He further commented, "This is expected to not only contribute to the development of the sleep industry but also serve as a new growth engine for the domestic bio-health industry."
