Next Year's Government R&D Focuses on 'Post-Corona' and 'Untact'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] The government will focus on research and development projects aimed at overcoming the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and fostering the untact industry next year.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held the 20th National Science and Technology Advisory Council (hereafter ‘Advisory Council’) Steering Committee meeting on the 7th and approved a revised direction for government R&D investment for next year reflecting this focus. Through this, the government’s R&D direction was revised from 10 promotion directions across 3 fields to 11 promotion directions across 4 fields.

To achieve an early recovery from the economic crisis, the government decided to strengthen investments in R&D for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-sized companies, employment retention for research personnel, and new job creation projects. It also set a direction to concentrate investments in promising fields that will lead the post-COVID era, such as digital-based untact (non-face-to-face) industries and pharmaceutical and bio industries. Furthermore, even sunset projects will be prevented from experiencing investment gaps if they are directly linked to overcoming the economic crisis or stabilizing employment in the post-COVID era. In addition, to overcome uncertainties arising from the global supply chain restructuring, active support will be provided for technological independence in the materials, parts, and equipment sectors.

This revised investment direction will be delivered to 22 ministries, agencies, and offices conducting R&D projects and will be used as a guideline for next year’s R&D budget requests.

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