MSIT Launches Bio Policy "One-Team System"

Building a Permanent Policy Platform to Match the Pace of AI and Bio Innovation... Directly Linking Policy with Academia

The Ministry of Science and ICT is launching a full-fledged "one-team policy system" in which on-site experts from the bio academia and research community participate in the entire policy-making process. The aim is to promptly reflect the needs of research sites in policy, in line with rapid changes in biotechnology driven by the spread of artificial intelligence (AI).

On the 10th in Sejong, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the "MSIT–Bio Academic Societies Future Policy Forum" together with the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and shared the direction for building a bio policy platform in which academia and policymakers cooperate on a regular basis.

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Recently, following AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold, large-scale DNA sequence-based function prediction technologies have emerged, and the use of AI is rapidly spreading across bio research. At the same time, there have been continued criticisms that new technological and institutional issues raised in the field are not being reflected in policy in a timely manner. The Ministry of Science and ICT explained that, to bridge this gap, it has put in place a structure for continuous policy communication rather than one-off meetings.

At the forum, academia presented the latest research trends and their policy implications. The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology stressed that life science research is shifting from the analysis of single genes and proteins to an integrated understanding of interactions within living systems, and that large-scale biodata and the use of advanced technologies will become core competitive factors in new drug development and precision medicine. The Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology also introduced the growing trend of precision medicine and new drug development using AI and data science, and raised the need to build automated data collection systems and large-scale AI analysis infrastructure.

On the policy side, the structure for research planning and budget allocation was also shared. The National Research Foundation of Korea explained the process of planning national research projects based on researcher demand, as well as the outcomes of operating an open planning system linked with academic societies and the direction for future improvements.

In particular, the National Center for Biotechnology Policy of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology introduced the "Bio Policy Platform," where experts from industry, academia, and research institutes participate on an ongoing basis to address issues in detailed bio fields such as innovative drugs, synthetic biology, and regulatory reform. This platform is being used as a constant communication channel that connects on-site discussions with policy review and project planning.

During the open discussion, participants agreed on the need to establish a structure in which on-site researchers and policy officials cooperate on a regular basis, with the policy platform at the center.

Oh Daehyun, Director-General for Future Strategy and Technology Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "The government and bio academic societies will work as one team to build a system that directly reflects voices from the field in policy," adding, "We will strengthen policy support so that AI and biotechnology can lead to tangible outcomes that change people’s lives."

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