The government unveiled a comprehensive plan to restore predictability in basic research investment and research stability, and to support the entire growth path from young researchers to top scholars. It plans to extend individual research periods to up to five years and strengthen links to follow-up research, while pushing to introduce performance-based block funding at universities to increase their capacity for research infrastructure investment.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 18th that it reviewed and announced the Basic Research Ecosystem Promotion Plan at the second meeting of ministers related to science and technology, held jointly with relevant ministries.
The plan includes four strategies and 12 tasks to leap into the world's top five in basic research by 2030. The government also presented numerical targets, saying it will increase the number of highly cited researchers (HCR) from 54 this year to 100 by 2030 and raise the number of universities (institutions) in the Nature Index top 100 from two this year to five by 2030. It also set a goal to produce winners of the world's most prestigious academic awards, including the Nobel Prize, the Wolf Prize, and the Turing Award, by 2030.
To that end, a system will be prepared to ensure long-term research. The duration of individual research will be extended from the current 1–3 years to 3–5 years, and links to follow-up research (expanded funding and up to two rounds of support) will be strengthened so researchers can continue deepening studies on the same topic. Furthermore, the government plans to expand "single-focus" projects that promote long-term research of 10 years or more.
The expansion of investment will be systematized around the benefit rate metric. The government will adopt the benefit rate—which shows how much basic research funding actually reaches researchers—as a key management indicator and said it will gradually increase basic research investment with the goal of achieving benefit rates of 30% for all faculty, 50% for full-time faculty, and 70% for early-career faculty by 2030. It also plans to pursue an amendment to the Basic Research Promotion Act to specify the government's obligation to ensure that a certain proportion of government research and development (R&D) investment is allocated to basic research.
Support for young researchers will expand in both scale and method. The government will increase support for young researchers, including postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) and early-career faculty, to 10,000 people over the next five years.
To back the growth of world-class researchers, the government will launch Top-tier leader research and support the building of global partnerships. It also plans to strengthen activities that expand the social contributions of top scholars, including spreading scientific culture, nurturing talent in science and engineering, and providing policy advice.
◇ Introducing university block funding… overhauling research infrastructure and personnel
Financial and organizational reforms will be pursued to strengthen universities' research competitiveness. The government will push to introduce performance-based block funding and prepare development plans such as making leading research centers self-sustaining. In particular, it aims to induce universities to use block funding to expand staff scientists and research support personnel and to invest in advanced research facilities and equipment, thereby overhauling university research ecosystems. Details such as the scope and scale of block funding will be refined through on-site communication.
As part of efforts to respond to regional population decline, the government also signaled the launch of a regional track within the National Research Lab (NRL 2.0) program and stronger support for Regional Leading Research Centers (RLRC).
The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) will be developed into a central institution in advanced basic science. The government said it will push to establish overseas branches and bring in overseas research team packages so IBS can actively leverage and attract top global talent.
Expanding the role of the private sector is also a key pillar. To broaden corporations' participation in basic research, the government plans to form an industry-academia-research-government council, create public-private matching funds to support strategic basic research, and promote private investment through various collaboration models such as corporate contract laboratories.
At the same time, the government will designate and operate 40 domain-specific Basic Research AI Centers by 2030 so researchers can integrate AI to deliver innovative results, and it will build dedicated infrastructure to enhance universities' AI utilization environments. Through this, it aims to support challenge-driven research to solve hard problems and train 2,000 basic research–AI convergence researchers by 2030.
Evaluation reforms will also be pursued to reduce administrative burdens on researchers. Along with strengthening the roles of research support staff within universities, the government said it will abolish stage evaluations and simplify selection evaluations, and gradually introduce AI technology throughout the evaluation process to reduce burdens on evaluators and researchers while enhancing reliability and expertise.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Basic research that explores principles and accumulates the foundation of knowledge is the basis of the advancement of Korean science and technology and the starting point of future innovation," adding, "We will build a basic research ecosystem in which researchers can carry out creative research over the long term and with stability without concern, and in which world-class results are continuously produced."