[Reading Science] Research Budget Doubled... Still Opaque Allowances

Laboratory. Not related to the article. Stock photo.

The patterns of misconduct occurring during the execution of national research and development (R&D) projects in South Korea are changing. First, the representative form of 'gapjil' (abuse of power) that has existed for decades?such as the collection of laboratory operating expenses?has sharply decreased. Although various corrupt practices were rampant when professors managed graduate students' research funds under the name of 'shared expenses,' these have significantly declined. This is because regulations were relaxed to allow miscellaneous laboratory expenses such as dining and equipment purchases to be paid from research funds. In fact, an analysis by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) of detailed settlement issues in national R&D projects in 2021 showed that improper execution of research activity expenses dropped dramatically from 40.2% in 2019 and 39.0% in 2020 to 6.8% in 2021. Indirect cost execution issues also slightly decreased from 3.4% in 2019 and 2.2% in 2020 to 1.7% in 2021.

On the other hand, misconduct related to research allowances remains prevalent. A professor at University A who conducted a national R&D project was caught pocketing research funds alone without giving any to the graduate students who assisted with the research. This violated government standards that require fair distribution based on a reasonable evaluation of each participant's contribution. This is the most common mistake among researchers conducting national R&D projects. According to the NRF's analysis of detailed settlement issues, a staggering 90.6% of all cases were identified as 'improper execution of research allowances.'

Specifically, there were many cases where the principal investigator or participating researchers monopolized the research allowances. Although there is a limit that only up to 70% of the maximum individual research allowance can be taken, there are numerous cases where this limit was exceeded. It is also common for payments to be made without reasonable criteria such as contribution evaluation. Some cases involved spending more than 20% of the actual labor cost or exceeding the amount stated in the research and development plan. Notably, the proportion of improper research allowance cases among all issues has increased significantly over the past three years, surging from 33.3% in 2019 to 58.8% in 2020 and 90.6% in 2021.

Other research misconduct unrelated to research funds?such as plagiarism, falsification, improper authorship, and duplicate publication?has been on the rise. Suspicions were raised in 58 cases in 2018, 110 cases in 2018, 243 cases in 2019, 391 cases in 2020, and 195 cases in 2021. Among these, 30-40% were confirmed as actual misconduct and disciplinary actions were taken, with 91 cases in 2019, 110 cases in 2020, and 90 cases in 2021.

In response, the research community attributes this trend to the recent substantial increase in government investment in basic and fundamental scientific research, which has led to a significant rise in national research projects (individual basic research projects) awarded to professors. The combined basic research budget from the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Education reached 2.55 trillion won last year, more than double the 1.26 trillion won in 2017. For a while, a joke circulated among professors that "the market is saturated." As research funding became more abundant, moral hazard also loosened. The ongoing scandals involving paper falsification and manipulation linked to high-ranking social figures, including the president’s spouse, may have weakened the overall vigilance against research misconduct in academia.

However, the increased national R&D budget is 'hard-earned taxpayers' money.' It serves as a catalyst to enable autonomous and creative research projects to be conducted steadily and over the long term, producing original and pioneering research outcomes. It must not become a means for some professors to fill their pockets or for abusing graduate students. It is also the foundation for South Korea to rise not as a fast follower but as a first mover and trend setter. The increased research funding support must be managed more efficiently and transparently.

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