The city of Daejeon is one of the eight major metropolitan cities in South Korea, where it was equally conceptualized with Daedeok Innopolis in accordance to the national policy in creating industrial complexes. The complex was created in the Daedeok area of Daejeon City, and was designed to maximize research potential by clustering national research institutes in a specified area, as well as to lure market-based corporate research institutions nearby.

Korea has undergone a remarkable economic development over the past 45 years, resulting in wide-scale social change. In the past, its main exports were raw natural resources, fisheries, and labor intensive products. Today, however, Korea has become an economic powerhouse which exports high technology products such as mobile phones and high definition televisions. Korea has adopted strategies to catch up with advanced countries through protective trade policy. In relation to industrial policy, labor intensive industry has been replaced by an export driven policy emphasizing heavy industry, the chemical industry, and hi-tech industry, and has transmuted to innovative industry clusters. During this booming period, public policy up until the mid-l990s focused on redistributing industrial centers away from the already established ones.

The construction plan for Daedeok Innopolis was drawn up in 1973. Construction work began in 1974, and in 1992, the infrastructure was finalized. In this process, decisive and intensive investment was needed - 30 trillion Korean won was invested to realize this plan. The first to reside in the Daedeok area was in the 1990s where government-funded research institutes and privately owned research institutes entered the complex. From the mid-1990s and onwards, these research institutes, universities including KAIST, venture-capital firms, and local public administrators have been networked to create a technology-intensive cluster. In 1999, the Daedeok Research Complex Act was revised to support a shift from the research university complex to a high technology intensive industry complex. The name of this area had been constantly shifting over the years. In 2000, the complex’s name was changed from Daedeok Research Complex to Daedeok Valley, in reflection of Silicon Valley in the United States and pursuit of the standing as a high-tech industrial complex in the world. In 2005, the complex was designated to Daedeok Research and Development Special District, ensuring special support from the Korean government.