The entire world is suffering from COVID-19 pandemic. KRISS, as the national metrology institute of Korea, has been confronted with new challenges to overcome COVID-19. KRISS has played an important role through relevant R&D activities as well as supporting industries in various ways.

Everyone, including KRISS researchers, is fighting against COVID-19. As the result of putting the relevant research at the top priority of the list to overcome COVID-19 scientifically, KRISS developed the reference material for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. As those reference materials include approximately 90% of the total genomes, they can swiftly respond to COVID-19 variants and, by measuring the absolute quantity of genes, it is possible to estimate the number of corona-virus in a sample as well as the existence of it. This helps minimize the uncertainty in diagnostic kits and significantly enhance the reliability of COVID-19 test.

In addition, KRISS has been practically giving the support to the industries, especially SMEs facing severe difficulties due to COVID-19. From March 2020, KRISS reduced the monthly rents by 70 % for the six tenant companies within its premises. KRISS also implemented “the half-fee policy” for SMEs, which they can get the calibration/testing services at only 50 % of the fee. Besides these efforts, KRISS has been committed to achieve shared growth with SMEs through its own ways, such as supporting technology transfer and granting monetary benefits to companies participating in the collaborative project.

In the early days of COVID-19 pandemic, KRISS shared our COVID-19 response program, which includes guidelines for quarantine measures and management know-hows at the institutional level, with 38 overseas institutes to actively respond to their requests.

KRISS is fulfilling our social responsibilities under the belief that we can overcome COVID-19 Pandemic early if we collaborate together and share pain together.