160 Billion Won Support for Basic Science Research... Announcement of Basic Plan for LAMP Project

New Professors Within 7 Years of Experience Can Operate Up to 1.5 Billion KRW
Plan to Select 8 Universities...At Least 6 Outside the Capital Region

The government will invest 16 billion KRW this year to support collaborative research among postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) in the basic science field.

On the 3rd, the Ministry of Education announced the basic plan for the newly launched 'LAMP' project starting this year.

The LAMP project supports collaborative research for emerging researchers in 10 basic science fields, including mathematical and statistical sciences, atomic science, astrophysics, particle and space science, and molecular-level science. Each university will establish an internal research institute management system, and the Ministry of Education will provide support for this.

While existing research and development (R&D) projects mostly support research funds for individual projects, this project focuses on supporting universities to directly oversee the selection of research personnel, expansion of facilities and equipment, and finalization of research topics. A distinctive feature compared to existing projects is the concentrated support for postdoctoral researchers (postdocs), who have been relatively under-supported until now.

The Ministry of Education targets only faculty members appointed within the last 7 years to lead collaborative research, aiming to attract young and talented postdocs and strengthen university research capabilities.

This year, the Ministry plans to select 8 universities and provide about 2 billion KRW per university, totaling 16 billion KRW. Among the selected universities, at least 6 will be allocated to universities located outside the metropolitan area.

Selected universities will receive project funding for 3 years, followed by a performance evaluation, and may receive additional support for 2 more years, operating under a 3+2 year system.

The Ministry of Education is currently negotiating with financial authorities to increase support to about 3 billion KRW per university starting next year.

Universities wishing to apply must select one of the 10 basic science fields and autonomously compose a collaborative research portfolio to submit by July. The principal investigator must be a faculty member within 7 years of appointment, and co-researchers must be researchers who obtained their doctoral degree within 7 years or are under 40 years old.

The Ministry will finalize and announce the supported universities around August to September after the selection evaluation.

Lee Yunhong, Director of Talent Policy Planning at the Ministry of Education, stated, "We will strive to make the launch of the LAMP project an important milestone in expanding the foundation of basic science research at universities in Korea."

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