[2025 Budget] R&D Approaching 30 Trillion Won, 'Record High' Allocation... "Enhancing Korea's Growth Potential"

R&D Budget: 29.3 Trillion Last Year → 26.5 Trillion This Year → 29.7 Trillion Next Year
Focused Investment in 'AI, Bio, Quantum'

The government has allocated a budget of 30 trillion won for research and development (R&D) next year. The aim is to strengthen investments in future core industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), bio, and quantum technologies to establish technological sovereignty and to secure new markets with leading-edge technologies that create a super-gap.

According to the '2025 Budget Proposal' announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 27th, the government has allocated 29.7 trillion won for R&D next year. This is an increase of 3.2 trillion won from this year's budget (26.5 trillion won), marking the largest amount ever.

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An official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained, "The national R&D budget has been expanded to a record high of 29.7 trillion won, up from 29.3 trillion won last year, focusing on the three major game changers (AI, bio, quantum) and 12 strategic technologies (semiconductors, aerospace, secondary batteries, etc.) under the foundation of comprehensive DNA innovation. This is not merely an increase in budget size but a thorough reform of low-performance and fragmented R&D to achieve a major shift toward leading-technology R&D."

First, the government newly allocated 37 billion won for the K-Cloud utilizing AI semiconductors and expanded the budget for next-generation general-purpose AI development to 18 billion won. In the bio sector, the investment scale for full-cycle collaborative projects will increase to 276.3 billion won, and the budget for the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) to solve difficult challenges will rise to 70.1 billion won.

Problem-solving budgets that directly address public safety issues such as new types of disasters and emerging crimes, as well as public problems like climate change and national missions, including 'early detection of new types of voice phishing,' have been increased from 3.4 trillion won this year to 3.7 trillion won.

In particular, to foster young researchers, the government will newly introduce the Korean-style research living allowance (Staripend), guaranteeing 1.1 million won per month for PhD holders and 800,000 won for master's degree holders, along with scholarships for science and engineering master's students (1,000 recipients, 5 million won per year).

Support for AI, bio, semiconductors, and strategic industries will also be expanded. A new AI Innovation Fund worth 100 billion won will be established, and the budget for the AI semiconductor demonstration project related to public life and safety will nearly double from 15.8 billion won this year to 29.8 billion won next year. Notably, 4.3 trillion won in low-interest loans will be newly supplied for large-scale investments, and support such as rapid infrastructure assistance will be expanded.

An official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "Last year, there were many small-scale, inefficient, and low-performance R&D projects, that is, fragmented and universal-track R&D, but this year we have worked to increase the proportion of high-performance projects. Regarding the semiconductor industry, which is a core of the Korean economy, we will fully support the comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem support plan announced last May through the supply of 4.3 trillion won in low-interest loans, R&D, workforce development, and commercialization financial support next year."

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