"Inadequate R&D Budget Planning for Next Year"…Ruling Party Soothes Scientific Community

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The People Power Party has begun efforts to appease the scientific community, which has opposed the government's cuts to next year's research and development (R&D) budget. The ruling party has reiterated its position to supplement the budget related to basic research and scholarship support, considering the concerns of the scientific community among the reduced R&D budget, but has not disclosed detailed increases.

On the afternoon of the 20th, the People Power Party held a "Communication Meeting on R&D Budget for Future Generations" at the National Assembly, listening to the opinions of 10 young researchers, including doctoral students and assistant professors. At the meeting, Yoo Ui-dong, chairman of the Policy Committee, said, "There were shortcomings in the process of adjusting and organizing next year's R&D budget," adding, "As budget discussions are currently underway in the National Assembly, the People Power Party will carefully listen to the voices from the research field today and ensure that there are no side effects from the R&D budget cuts."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Young researchers expressed concerns about the shortage of labor costs in the basic research field due to next year's R&D budget cuts. Lee Joon-sik, a doctoral student in the Department of Management Information Systems at Kookmin University, said, "Student labor costs vary greatly depending on the status of research project orders in the lab. In my case, during my master's program when I had almost no participating projects, I had difficulty continuing my studies for economic reasons," adding, "While focused support for high-performing labs or promising fields is important, I think an incubating system is also necessary as a safety net to protect emerging new fields or labs currently in their infancy."

Park Joo-chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Medical Research Institute of Seoul National University, also said, "Students' labor costs, tuition fees, and living expenses mostly depend on research funds. When the research funds of individual labs become tight, students find it difficult to continue their studies," adding, "The fundamental problem is that student labor costs depend on research funds. To reduce this dependency, if student labor costs or tuition fees are supported more in the form of scholarships, it could function as a safety net allowing future researchers to conduct stable research."

The ruling party said it would approach budget review by supplementing the R&D budget reflecting researchers' opinions but did not disclose specific figures or fields. After the meeting, Chairman Yoo told reporters, "We had sufficient communication with the researchers, and there were some minor misunderstandings," adding, "We recognized the need for further policy supplementation, and this will be reflected sufficiently in the final budget compilation process."

However, regarding specific budget increases, he drew a line, saying, "Today is not a subcommittee meeting of the Budget and Accounts Special Committee but a session to listen to voices from the field," adding, "This is not a place to disclose positions on that." Regarding budget increases for government-funded research institutes (GFRIs), he also said, "It is difficult to mention numbers here," adding, "The opposition and ruling parties do not always share the same views. If we say it's a lot, they say it's little, so at some point, a balance will be struck. Please give us some time until then."

Although the ruling party has shown its willingness to supplement the R&D budget by listening to the scientific community's opinions, it is uncertain how much will actually be reflected in the budget. The opposition party, which holds a large number of seats, had already passed a budget bill the day before in the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee subcommittee, increasing the R&D budget by 800 billion won unilaterally. The People Power Party, like the government proposal, emphasizes a tightening stance and 'restructuring' to efficiently allocate unnecessarily spent budgets, opposing the Democratic Party's budget bill that increased the budget. Although there is still a negotiation process in the Budget and Accounts Special Committee subcommittee, since the opposition party (9 members) outnumbers the ruling party (6 members) in the subcommittee composition, it is uncertain how much the ruling party's opinions will be practically reflected.

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