"Community Public Service Blind Spot Improvement" Theme, Citizen-Led Small Research Contest

Open Call from April 26 to May 21

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 25th that it will hold the "Citizen-led Small Research Policy Proposal Contest" in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Local Administration, themed "Improving Blind Spots in Local Community Public Services."

The small research contest, which has contributed to academic development by supporting research on citizens' creative ideas, will from this year place greater emphasis on the feasibility of excellent ideas and actively pursue institutionalization and commercialization.

This contest, held to discover weaknesses in local-level public services through direct citizen participation and to resolve them, is open to all citizens of the Republic of Korea. The submission period is four weeks, from the 26th to May 21.

Citizens wishing to participate in the contest can visit Gwanghwamoon1st (www.gwanghwamoon1st.go.kr) or the Korea Institute of Local Administration website (www.krila.re.kr) to check the contest guidelines and then submit their proposals via email (research2021@krila.re.kr).

Among the submitted projects, 10 will be selected through internal and external expert review in June, and research funding of 2 million won will be provided to the selected project proposers. After the final report meeting in November, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety Minister and the Korea Institute of Local Administration President will award prizes to the proposers of the outstanding projects.

In particular, to ensure fairness in this contest, duplicate reviews of project proposals will be conducted, and if any actions contrary to sound contest operation are found, awards may be revoked and prize money reclaimed even after the announcement of outstanding projects.

The projects selected in the contest will go through a public discourse process such as joint seminars and publication of booklets through collaboration between the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the institute, aiming to be reflected in actual policies. During the public discourse process, opinions from local community sites will be actively collected, and participation from local governments and private companies capable of jointly implementing the ideas will be encouraged to develop concrete implementation plans together.

Han Chang-seop, Director of Government Innovation Organization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "Through inter-agency collaboration, we will listen to the voices of citizens in the blind spots of public services and strive to improve systems and services to bring about practical changes in local communities," and requested active interest and participation from the public in this contest.

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