Annual 130 Million KRW Support for Non-Regular Scientists... "Prevent Doctoral Brain Drain and Promote Creative Research"

Ministry of Science and ICT Launches 'Sejong Science Fellowship' This Year
311 Selected to Receive Childcare Support Alongside Salaries and Research Funds
'Relief' for Underprivileged Non-Regular Scientists Including Postdoctoral Researchers Under 39

Scientist. Stock photo. Not related to the article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The government has officially launched a project to support young researchers so they can focus on the research they want to pursue. A total of 311 outstanding young scientists have been selected to receive an average research fund of 130 million KRW each.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 1st that it has officially started the 'Sejong Science Fellowship' program, a research support system with this purpose. This program, newly initiated in 2021, aims to support the challenging research of young scientists. It provides research funding of approximately 130 million KRW per year to postdoctoral researchers (including non-tenure track faculty) who obtained their PhD within the last 7 years or are under 39 years old.

This is to enable non-regular researchers in basic science fields, who face low treatment and unstable status, to conduct their desired research stably and freely move between laboratories. Notably, it features continuous support by hiring them as full-time faculty or full-time researchers at universities and research institutions.

This year, a total of 311 outstanding young scientists were selected and will be supported to conduct their desired research for the next five years. By affiliation, 278 (89.4%) are postdoctoral researchers and non-tenure track faculty affiliated with universities, while 33 (10.6%) are researchers affiliated with government-funded research institutes or other organizations. Notably, among them, 124 are female researchers, accounting for nearly 40% (39.9%), which is more than twice the proportion of female principal investigators in national R&D projects at 17.5% (based on 2019 data). The proportion of researchers affiliated with regional universities was also 97 (31.2%). For postdoctoral researchers, the highest level of salaries (65 million KRW per year) and research funds (35 million KRW per year) are provided. In addition to salaries, child allowances (150,000 KRW per child per month) are also paid.

This project was implemented in response to criticism that young scientists could not properly focus on original ideas or specialized research due to low treatment and unstable employment status, hindering innovation in basic science fields. In fact, a survey conducted by the National Research Foundation of Korea targeting postdoctoral researchers (with 826 respondents) showed that securing sufficient salaries (429 respondents, 52.3%) was the most important condition for conducting desired research.

The Ministry of Science and ICT expects that the implementation of this program will greatly help promote the return of young PhDs who studied abroad and foster innovation in the scientific community through the creation of original and creative research outcomes. In fact, postdoctoral researcher A, who was conducting research at a French research institute, was able to return to Korea with support from the Sejong Science Fellowship. Also, postdoctoral researcher B, who has four children, welcomed the program, saying, "Although it takes time, I can now conduct research that produces meaningful results," and added, "Especially, being able to live with my family while conducting research and receiving additional child allowances allows me to focus more on my research."

In addition, the Sejong Science Fellowship holds mentoring sessions and research outcome sharing meetings with mid-career and leader-level researchers to help young scientists plan creative research topics and directions independently and expand their research. The program plans to select additional candidates in the second half of the year by improving some systems, such as allowing applications even without an affiliation at the time of application.

Kim Bong-su, Director of Basic and Fundamental Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “We hope that young scientists who have dreams and challenges in research will grow through the Sejong Science Fellowship,” and added, “We will strive to improve the difficulties faced by postdoctoral researchers during the research process.”

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