The government said on the 5th that it will expand training for physician-scientists who hold medical licenses and conduct scientific research. It will support a joint degree program between medical schools and science and engineering graduate schools. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) held the "2025 Physician-Scientist Net Workshop" in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, in the afternoon and announced these plans.
The ministry has been running a convergence-type physician-scientist training project since 2019. It supports students from undergraduate through doctoral degrees. A total of 165 full-time doctoral students received scholarships and research funds, and 79 physician-scientists have been produced.
Starting next year, it will add new projects to train physician-scientists. The K-Medist support project will establish a joint degree program between medical schools and science and engineering graduate schools. It will support research and commercialization centered on joint research institutes. It will also introduce a physician-scientist leap program to nurture biohealth talent.
It will invite leading overseas biohealth scholars and run a program that allows young domestic physician-scientists to train at research institutions. It will help ensure research ideas lead to investment attraction and business. It will also identify and award 100 outstanding scientists over 20 years, five each year.