"Making the 35 Trillion Won R&D Budget Tangible: Breaking Down Ministerial Barriers and Introducing Investment-Type Research"

The government has decided to create an ecosystem for the dissemination of achievements so that the largest-ever research and development (R&D) budget can be felt by the public. It will also foster talent in artificial intelligence (AI) security, which has recently become a subject of controversy, and promote policies to shift the paradigm toward science and technology-based care services.

On April 16, Hyeun Paek, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, presided over the 7th Meeting of Ministers Related to Science and Technology at the Government Complex Seoul and discussed six agenda items.

Hyeun Paek, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, is speaking about the reorganization direction of the three major telecommunications companies' tariff plans at the Special Task Force meeting on Livelihood Price Management held at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul on April 9, 2026. Photo by Jo Yongjun

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At the meeting, strategies to upgrade the R&D commercialization system for broader dissemination of scientific and technological innovation achievements were discussed. The goal is to ensure that this year’s R&D investment of approximately 35.5 trillion won can be tangibly experienced by the public. This strategy is a follow-up to the “Innovation Plan for the R&D Ecosystem to Lead the Future with Science and Technology” announced by the Lee Jaemyung administration in November of last year. The government will establish an “R&D Achievement Dissemination Expressway,” transcending inter-ministerial barriers to ensure that R&D achievements quickly transition through various stages of growth.

In addition, the government will create an ecosystem for the dissemination of research achievements by introducing institutional innovations to lower the barriers to research-based startups, strengthening the expertise and roles of organizations supporting technology commercialization such as public technology holding companies and comprehensive tech commercialization firms, and introducing an “investment-type R&D” system that allows for the recovery and reinvestment of R&D results. Through this strategy, the government aims to have a cumulative total of 5,000 AI and deep-tech startups based on public research achievements by 2030. Detailed implementation plans for the R&D Achievement Dissemination Expressway and related legislative amendments will also be pursued sequentially.

The meeting also deliberated and approved the “Regional Innovation Growth Strategy through Science and Technology.” Four major science and technology institutes and regional universities will collaborate to establish talent development clusters in metropolitan areas, and regional universities and government-funded research institutes will develop linked and cooperative models tailored to local characteristics to support youth retention in the regions. At the same time, support for local researchers and institutes will be expanded, and regional R&D focused on advanced strategic technologies such as bio, next-generation small modular reactors (SMR), space, and nuclear fusion will be strengthened to lay the foundation for new industries. The government will also promote support for deep-tech startups and create stage-specific funds to ensure that research outcomes lead to entrepreneurship and commercialization.

The government has also established measures to foster the information security industry. These measures aim to achieve information security industry sales of 30 trillion won by 2030, foster 80 medium- and large-sized information security companies with sales over 50 billion won, and reach exports of 5 trillion won, by promoting four main strategies and ten key tasks.

The plan is to discover promising AI security companies, nurture them into national champions through comprehensive support, and develop specialized security products based on AI. The government will expand the foundation for developing the next-generation converged security sector and growing the security industry, while launching an all-out effort to nurture world-class security experts. To this end, the government will overhaul white-hat education programs and expand the designation of converged security graduate schools in the five core and three special regions across the country. In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported a master plan to expand cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam in the field of advanced science and technology and to establish a package-type cooperation system.

As part of the field-specific AI and AI transformation (AX) strategy, the government has also finalized the “AI Care Technology Full Cycle Support Strategy.” This strategy was established to shift the policy paradigm in the care sector, which has received relatively little policy attention regarding the introduction of science and technology. The government will develop innovative care service models utilizing science and technology such as AI, IoT, and robotics. It also plans to support the development, demonstration, and dissemination of care technologies based on field demand and to improve relevant laws and systems.

The “Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) Public AX Transformation Plan” was also deliberated and approved. The MSS aims to create a system that supports everything from service access, business applications, and the use of AI and data, to internal policy execution through the public AX transformation. Specifically, MSS and relevant agency systems will be consolidated so that all support project applications can be submitted with a single login. The government will also introduce dedicated AI agents for small businesses and SMEs, and open public data to ventures and startups for the development of AI services.

Meanwhile, at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Paek highlighted that South Korea received high marks in the AI Index 2026 report released by Stanford HAI. He said, “The government’s comprehensive support and efforts at the national level are yielding meaningful results, so we must continue policy efforts to firmly establish ourselves as one of the global top three in AI,” and added, “We will accelerate whole-of-government efforts even further.”

Deputy Prime Minister Paek also mentioned Anthropic’s new AI model, “Mythos,” emphasizing, “Security systems that we have believed to be safe for decades can easily be compromised. We will maintain unwavering cybersecurity readiness through close inter-ministerial cooperation and ensure thorough preparedness for future responses.”

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