[The Editors' Verdict] Reflections on Science and Technology Innovation Policy

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought many changes not only to our lifestyle but also to the economic system. Ongoing issues such as climate warming, social polarization, and aging are causing new changes in our economic society while presenting new challenges. To solve these problems, responses at the socio-economic system level, along with responses through science and technology, must be considered important. The rapid advancement of science and technology has raised expectations among many people that it can solve pressing problems, but instead, these problems remain unresolved and are even worsening. This implies the need for deep reflection and discussion on whether the existing research and development methods and directions of scientific and technological innovation were appropriate, and whether a change in direction is necessary. It is now time to discuss not only what technology development and innovation policies aim for but also how well these policies align with social values.

Science and technology innovation policies are based on policies that aim to create knowledge through expanded resource input. Such policies are essentially policies for science itself, with the science and technology sector at the center. The government mainly intervenes to manage knowledge and solve information asymmetry problems. Since these policies have clear limitations in their effectiveness, they evolve through a process into innovation policies for economic growth to overcome these limitations.

Policies set innovation promotion as a primary goal. Policies that aim to increase employment through innovation are meaningful in terms of contributing to economic development. However, they also have limitations in that they are disconnected from social policies such as quality of life. Therefore, recent innovation policies are trending toward systems that integrate economic growth, quality of life improvement, and sustainable development. They aim to integrate innovation policies and social policies. Through this, a structure is established where the science and technology sector, economic sector, civil society, and users participate in deciding policy measures and directions.

Looking at the contents of South Korea’s science and technology innovation policies within this evolving system, they generally focus on innovating the existing system. Most of the major challenges South Korea faces arise from system-level problems. To solve these, a shift is needed from the current policy approach and linear institutional improvements for innovating the existing science and technology system to sustainable system innovation policies. Science and technology innovation policies must be established considering interactions among the macro environment, socio-technical environment, and institutions and norms. At this point, what is important is a critical analysis of the norms and institutions, which are major elements of the current socio-technical system, and breaking away from existing thought frameworks to derive disruptive or innovative alternatives. What makes this possible is innovation in governance structures. The government must consider policy development from the perspective of system transformation. What must be considered in the policy development process is actively sharing the agenda with stakeholders and increasing transparency in policy direction before setting the system transformation direction. It is also necessary to specifically identify the actual demand for science and technology and engage in activities to form that demand. Science and technology innovation must be linked to the lives of the people. I hope that proper discussions on science and technology innovation policies, which are very important for South Korea’s future, will take place.

Shin Minsu, Professor, Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University

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