Spent 20.6 Trillion Won on Government R&D... Slight Increase in SMEs

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] It has been revealed that the government spent a total budget of 20.6254 trillion KRW on research and development (R&D) last year. Five ministries, including the Ministry of Science and ICT, concentrated their investments in R&D, and these funds flowed to government-funded research institutes and universities. Compared to the previous year, support for R&D in universities and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased, but their share was not significant.

According to the results of the 21st National Science and Technology Advisory Council's review meeting reported by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 23rd, the government executed 20.6254 trillion KRW for 70,327 R&D projects last year. The number of projects increased by 10.4%, and the investment amount also rose by 4.3%. The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that over the past five years, the total government budget increased by an average of 6.4% annually, but the R&D expenditure only grew by an average of 2.2% per year.

The concentration of R&D by ministries continued last year as well. Five ministries accounted for 79.1% of the total expenditure. This includes the Ministry of Science and ICT with 7 trillion KRW (33.9%), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy with 3.2 trillion KRW (15.7%), the Defense Acquisition Program Administration with 3.2 trillion KRW (15.3%), the Ministry of Education with 1.9 trillion KRW (9.3%), and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups with 1 trillion KRW (4.9%). The concentration of R&D increased compared to 78.4% the previous year.

By research performers, government-funded research institutes spent 8.3 trillion KRW, and universities spent 5 trillion KRW. Among companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies received 4.5 trillion KRW (21.9%), which is a 0.4 percentage point increase from 21.5% the previous year.

By region, provinces excluding Daejeon accounted for 7.9 trillion KRW (38.8%), the metropolitan area (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon) 6.7 trillion KRW (32.6%), and Daejeon 5.8 trillion KRW (28.6%). Over the past five years, the share of R&D expenditure in provinces has steadily increased (an average annual increase of 3.9%), while the share in the metropolitan area has decreased (an average annual decrease of 2.9%).

The researcher-led basic research projects, where researchers freely set the topics and scope, saw an expenditure of 1.7 trillion KRW, a 19.6% increase compared to the previous year. The number of projects was 23,104, a 31.7% increase from the previous year. The government plans to raise the budget for this project to about 2.52 trillion KRW by 2022.

The average research funding per R&D project was 290 million KRW, a decrease of 20 million KRW compared to the previous year.

By research funding range, projects under 50 million KRW numbered 25,770 (36.6%, a 32.9% increase from the previous year), projects between 50 million KRW and under 200 million KRW were 29,146 (41.4%, a 24.9% increase), and projects over 200 million KRW were 15,411 (21.9%, a 3.8% increase).

The results of this survey will be used as analysis data for government policy, budget, and evaluation after reporting to the National Science and Technology Advisory Council's review meeting. Detailed information can be found on the National Science and Technology Knowledge Information Service and the National Statistics Portal.

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