Promotion of Challenging Research on Scientific Problems Such as 'Cancer Recurrence Prevention'

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A convergent research and development project that boldly challenges scientific enigmas such as preventing cancer recurrence, maintaining youthfulness until 100 years old, and elucidating the principles of the universe's creation is set to be actively promoted. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the promotion plan for the 'Challenge of Scientific Enigmas Convergent Research and Development Project' on the 28th.

The Challenge of Scientific Enigmas Convergent Research and Development Project refers to a project that challenges previously unimaginable scientific enigmas based on collective intelligence of researchers and convergent research between basic science and engineering. The government will continuously open (open platform) the process of discovering challenges to be tackled and concretizing approaches for solving these challenges to the researcher community, and the composition of research teams combining basic scientists and engineers will be determined through public seminars and other means. The practical work related to this will be carried out by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.

The Enigma Support Group of the Science Academy identified nine candidate topics for scientific enigmas (challenge areas) through planning research, surveys targeting the science and technology community, expert interviews, and public discussions. These include groundbreaking cancer treatment research (such as preventing cancer recurrence), research to augment and maintain human sensory abilities (such as neural mimicry), unprecedented convergence of basic research and engineering (artificial intelligence and big data + basic research, engineering reproduction of self-alignment, etc.), basic science and engineering research for technologies two generations ahead of the current one (brain internet, etc.), research on the principles of life (immune regulation, etc.), and elucidation of the principles of the universe's creation.

Based on these topics, the government plans to select two convergent research teams and begin support from the second half of this year. The selection will focus on discovering new knowledge and opening academic horizons rather than immediate technological progress or industrial application. Applications can be submitted through the Science Academy's website.

Ko Seogon, Director of Basic and Fundamental Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "The challenge of scientific enigmas convergent research will be the first step of adventurous research that expresses new concepts, methods, and theories on research topics meaningful in themselves. We will support it to become a leading model of challenging convergent research where renowned researchers and young scientists participate widely, and basic scientists and engineers collaborate organically."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.