Innovative Challenge-Type R&D Evaluated by Process, Not Results

The Ministry of Science and ICT Innovation Headquarters Shifts 'APRO' R&D to Process-Oriented Qualitative Evaluation
First Application in 'Autism Spectrum Digital Therapeutics Project'

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 22nd that it will abolish the results-oriented evaluation grading system for the 'APRO' R&D, an innovation-challenge type research and development (R&D) project aimed at high-risk and high-difficulty goals with a high possibility of failure, and switch to a process-centered qualitative evaluation.

Until now, when researchers failed to achieve their original research goals at the end of the R&D period, they faced the stigma of 'failure' and disadvantages such as not being selected for follow-up projects, which inevitably made them hesitant to adopt bold goals and pioneering methods that no one had tried before.

Accordingly, the Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters of the Ministry of Science and ICT decided to abolish the existing “evaluation grading system,” which classified achievements as excellent, average, or insufficient based on whether stage-by-stage or final goals were met during the APRO R&D project, and to switch to a “close management system” that improves the research process through qualitative consulting.

The Science and Technology Innovation Headquarters plans to incorporate the APRO R&D close management system into the integrated research support system (IRIS) by the end of September to ensure smooth implementation at research sites, and to apply it as early as November starting with the Ministry of Health and Welfare's 'Autism Mixed-Type Digital Therapeutics Project,' one of the APRO R&D projects.

Im Yo-eop, Director of Science and Technology Innovation Coordination, emphasized, “Through this institutional improvement, we will fundamentally change the binary perception of success or failure and provide an opportunity to re-recognize the meaning of failure as a path leading to success,” adding, “The goal is to present an evaluation framework suitable for high-risk and high-difficulty research projects under APRO, thereby encouraging researchers' challenge spirit and ultimately improving the national R&D system into a leading model.”

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