Introducing Competitive Methods and Providing Mid-to-Long-Term Budget Support for 'Challenging Research and Development'

On the 14th, the Cabinet Meeting Passed the Amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the 'Framework Act on Science and Technology' Containing System Improvement Measures

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] From now on, a 'challenging' approach will be activated in the science and technology research and development (R&D) of public research institutions. Even if failures occur, no responsibility will be imposed, or competitive methods will be introduced, and steady budget support will be provided for mid- to long-term research.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the "Framework Act on Science and Technology," which includes systems such as the establishment of a pan-government support system for activating challenging R&D, competitive methods, and various R&D procedure promotion systems, passed the Cabinet meeting on the 14th and will be implemented within this month.

Previously, in December last year, the "Framework Act on Science and Technology" was amended to newly establish grounds for ▲government efforts to expand support ▲promotion of various R&D methods such as competitive types ▲continuous budget allocation for mid- to long-term challenging R&D projects necessary for activating challenging R&D.

This Enforcement Decree contains details such as the establishment of a pan-government support system, specific procedures for competitive and reward-type research methods, and conditions for continuous budget allocation. First, each ministry can promote challenging R&D, and the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters can classify challenging R&D projects conducted by ministries into groups and support them. To this end, a pan-government public-private consultative body composed of each ministry and private experts will be formed to prepare promotion strategies for activating challenging R&D and to perform inter-ministerial collaboration and coordination.

When promoting challenging R&D projects through competitive methods, competition types are defined as ▲competition methods at the planning stage ▲competition methods at the research stage ▲contest methods, totaling three types. The content also includes allowing continuous or dropout decisions and differential research funding through competition. It also requires specifying the competition method and procedures, and criteria for judging continuation or dropout of research when announcing projects. When promoting through reward-type R&D methods, the scope of reward payments and evaluation methods must be announced in advance, and a consultative body including private experts can be operated to review appropriate reward amounts and payment procedures according to the characteristics of each project. For R&D projects that have passed preliminary feasibility studies, the responsible ministry can request continuous budget allocation from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Ministry of Economy and Finance can request a suitability review from the Ministry of Science and ICT if necessary.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT will classify projects of each ministry into groups according to the Enforcement Decree so that each ministry can systematically promote challenging R&D projects, and will promote pan-government promotion strategies, budget support, and discovery of system improvement tasks. To ensure that the newly introduced system is established early in the research field, challenging R&D guidelines will be prepared. Follow-up measures such as promotion targeting researchers and related parties will also be carried out.

Minister Lim Hye-sook of the Ministry of Science and ICT said, "Considering that R&D for securing innovative technologies with significant industrial and security ripple effects are mostly high-difficulty challenging research with a high possibility of failure, it is necessary to apply a new method different from the existing 'success'-centered R&D methods," and added, "Starting with this Enforcement Decree amendment, we will actively support researchers so that they are not afraid of failure and can boldly take on challenges."

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