Jeon Seong-bae IITP Director: "1.4 Trillion Won Invested in ICT R&D This Year... Strengthening Full-Cycle Management"

Information and Communication Planning Evaluation Institute Announces 2021 Work Plan

Jeon Seong-bae, Director of IITP, is announcing this year's work plan at a press conference held on the 25th at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] “We plan to expand focused support for high-risk and challenging projects such as fundamental, infrastructure, and core industrial technologies that are difficult for humans to undertake. Additionally, we will manage the entire lifecycle from a comprehensive perspective to ensure that research and development (R&D) and workforce training proceed simultaneously and translate into actual outcomes through policies and other measures.”

The Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP), an R&D organization in the ICT sector, will invest 1.4 trillion KRW this year in developing innovative technologies and training experts to prepare for a new decade of digital transformation. This represents an increase of more than 10% compared to last year.

On the 25th, IITP held a press briefing attended by Director Jeon Seong-bae and others, announcing the '2021 Major Work Plan' containing these details. The announced work plan focuses on ▲ securing core ICT R&D capabilities to respond to digital transformation ▲ building a foundation for innovative growth in future ICT R&D ▲ innovating an open and autonomous R&D management system ▲ management innovation and fulfillment of social responsibilities.

IITP’s budget for this year is 1.3799 trillion KRW, an 11.6% increase from last year’s 1.2285 trillion KRW. By sector, 887.7 billion KRW will be allocated to technology development, 273.5 billion KRW to talent cultivation, 124.3 billion KRW to infrastructure and standardization, and 75.4 billion KRW and 18.7 billion KRW respectively to commercialization and institutional operations.

This year, IITP will strengthen support for developing core technologies to secure innovative growth engines. First, 139.1 billion KRW will be invested in R&D support to achieve early results in the Digital New Deal, including ultra-high-performance and ultra-wideband networks, non-face-to-face remote collaboration platforms, and AI semiconductor design. Furthermore, high-risk and challenging R&D for mid- to long-term technology accumulation and securing leading technologies such as 6G, autonomous driving, and blockchain will continue to expand. The new investment in this field, which was 87.2 billion KRW last year, will increase by more than 50% to 133.6 billion KRW this year.

Additionally, 74.3 billion KRW will be provided to discover mid- to long-term innovative research projects such as next-generation database management systems (DBMS) and knowledge-based technologies based on causal inference, which could become future growth engines. Moreover, carbon-neutral R&D (15.8 billion KRW) supporting energy intelligence and high-efficiency, low-loss technology development for ICT+industry convergence services will be newly launched.

To respond to future technological changes and foster convergence new industries over the mid- to long-term, planning for large-scale new projects in strategic fields is also underway. Currently, preliminary feasibility studies are being conducted for four projects: PIM AI semiconductor core technology development, next-generation AI core fundamental technology development, low-earth orbit small cluster satellite communication technology development, and smart media technology development and commercialization.

Jeon Seong-bae, Director of IITP, is announcing this year's work plan at a press conference held on the 25th at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

Continuous efforts will also be made to cultivate core talents in promising ICT fields. This year, IITP will expand the training of master’s and doctoral-level talents by newly designating 16 centers and graduate schools, including eight University ICT Research Centers, two AI Graduate Schools, and six SW Star Labs, supporting them with 74.6 billion KRW. Additionally, IITP plans to focus on nurturing convergent researchers equipped with practical problem-solving skills by jointly designing graduate curricula with companies and universities. Furthermore, a global core talent development program worth 14.9 billion KRW will be conducted to support joint research, internships, and specialized education by dispatching domestic master’s and doctoral students to technology-leading countries in innovative growth fields.

Research infrastructure for device, equipment, and device testing and verification will also be established to timely respond to technological changes in companies, such as D.N.A (Data, Network, Artificial Intelligence) technologies and 5G convergence services. To this end, investments will be made in ICT Innovation Leading Research Infrastructure Construction (9 billion KRW), Ultra-connected Intelligent R&D Network Construction and Operation (9.2 billion KRW), and Network Slicing-based 5G Convergence Service Testbed Construction (13.1 billion KRW).

The R&D management system will also be improved to be more open and autonomous. First, regarding the evaluation system, the quality of evaluators will be enhanced through real-name systems and top evaluator systems, and operations will be customized according to evaluation situations and R&D types. Research fund management will be strengthened through preventive education and consulting. Preventive education-centered management will be reinforced by newly implementing self-diagnosis tests on research fund usage for principal investigators and others, and researchers will be educated on essential matters such as regulations and system use to enable continuous monitoring of research fund execution.

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