Although the money the government pours into research and development (R&D) is rising rapidly, an analysis found that the quality and efficiency of outcomes are falling.
On the 3rd, the National Assembly Futures Institutee said in a report titled "Policy directions to enhance government R&D investment efficiency" that the government research and development (R&D) budget, which was 4 trillion won in 2000, surpassed 30 trillion won in 2023. In dollar terms, it has increased more than sevenfold from 2000, with a much faster growth rate than Japan, Germany, and the United States.
However, key performance indicators such as research papers and patents did not yield the expected effects. In the international competitiveness assessment (IMD criteria), it moved from 29th in 2005 to 27th in 2025, showing little progress over the past 20 years.
As of 2023, of the 30.6 trillion won in R&D expenditures, government-funded research institutes accounted for 11 trillion won (36.3%), corporations 8.5 trillion won (27.8%), and universities 7.4 trillion won (24.2%). Of the total 71,804 research projects, nearly half, or 45%, were small-scale projects of less than 100 million won, and the share of labor costs in research funding was also relatively high at an average of 24.4%.
The National Assembly Futures Institutee noted, "If you exclude labor costs from small projects, the money actually used for research is very little," pointing to this structure as the cause of inefficiency in government R&D.
For papers, about 60% are published with government support, but internationally, Korean papers accounted for 2.35% of the total, ranking 12th, and their share of citations was 2.23%, ranking 11th. Patent outcomes have also increased, but the share attributable to government R&D has been only about 15% over the past decade, and universities were assessed to lag behind other research institutes or corporations.
The National Assembly Futures Institutee proposed that to solve these problems, the support structure should be changed to leverage the strengths of each research actor under the principle of "qualitative selection and concentration."
First, for basic research support, it said that instead of researchers receiving funds through individual competition, funds should be allocated at the university or department level and each university or department should be reorganized to carry out projects by project unit.
It also emphasized that in operating government-funded research institutes, organizations should be integrated in line with industry demand, and regional organizations should be streamlined. Instead of the existing method of supporting research funds at the institution level, the support system should be changed to research project units by national strategic technology.
Lastly, in the field of cultivating science and technology talent, it suggested integrating programs scattered across ministries, reorganizing them into university R&D support programs led by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and introducing a system in which the government directly supports universities and graduate schools to cultivate research talent needed by industry.
The National Assembly Futures Institutee expected that through this overhaul, the government R&D system could be improved into one that not only increases the budget but also raises both the quality of research outcomes and their industrial and social utility.