The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 12th that it convened the 80th Operations Committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology and reviewed and approved the draft of the "2027 national research and development investment direction and criteria."
The national research and development investment direction is the basic guideline the government applies when formulating the next year's research and development (R&D) budget. Based on this, the Ministry of Science and ICT will determine each ministry's R&D project budget requests and the direction for allocating and adjusting the government's overall R&D budget.
The government said it will prioritize investment in securing competitiveness in strategic technologies and flagship industries, while at the same time pursuing institutional reforms that researchers can feel in the field. At a briefing, Park In-gyu, head of the Science and Technology Innovation Center at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "It is now time for R&D investment to lead to outcomes that the public can feel."
◇ Focus on AI, bio, and quantum… "From infrastructure to application and demonstration"
To secure future competitiveness, the government will concentrate investment in strategic technology fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced bio, quantum, and space, aviation, and marine. For AI, it will promote both broader public use and a transition across industries, and in defense it plans to simultaneously raise defense industry competitiveness and security capabilities by rapidly applying cutting-edge civilian technologies. Expanded investment in cybersecurity and materials technologies is also included.
In this regard, the government presented a shift for next year's R&D as moving from expanding infrastructure to focusing on application, use, and demonstration. At a briefing, Lee Jae-heun, director general of research and development investment deliberation at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "If AI has so far focused on expanding infrastructure, from next year it will enter a phase in which application and use are in full swing," adding, "By embedding AI across all fields, we will raise research productivity and enable research that was previously not possible."
In energy and carbon neutrality, the government will strengthen a support system that goes beyond developing unit technologies to include demonstration and diffusion. Strengthening competitiveness in flagship and advanced industries was also presented as a key direction. On the premise of sharing roles between the public and private sectors in fields such as semiconductors and displays, advanced robots and manufacturing, next-generation communications, advanced mobility, and secondary batteries, the government will focus on securing long-term, high-risk technologies. In particular, support will be emphasized for highly strategic areas such as compound and power semiconductors, advanced packaging, and AI Semiconductor.
R&D investment closely tied to people's daily lives will also be expanded. The government will push disaster and safety response technologies for floods and wildfires with a focus on solving on-site problems, and it plans to link the results to public procurement so they can be quickly applied in the field. It will also continue problem-solving R&D for social issues such as responding to low birthrates and aging and improving living environments.
Alongside this, so-called "K-Science" R&D in fields where Korea needs to take the lead was newly presented. Innovation Center head Park In-gyu said, "K-Science is a new investment direction that did not exist before," adding, "It refers to research that other countries' scientists would find difficult to conduct or have little interest in unless Korean scientists do it, and that can be pursued based on Korea's unique data and characteristics."
◇ Easing burdens in research settings and boosting regions and commercialization
Measures to strengthen the foundation of on-site research were also included in this investment direction. In basic research, the government will increase the number of projects and raise shared use of personnel and infrastructure, while fostering an environment in which young researchers can stably immerse themselves in research. For universities, the review includes introducing block funding, an institution-level support method, and for government-funded research institutes it contemplates a step-by-step abolition of the project-based system (PBS), a shift to a mission-centered research system, and improvements in talent recruitment and treatment.
In this regard, the Innovation Center said it will push from this year measures to reduce administrative burdens in research and to give researchers greater autonomy in executing research funds. It will streamline various administrative forms registered in the inter-ministerial Integrated Research Information System (IRIS) to reduce duplicative forms, and it plans to cut documents that do not need to be submitted by linking with government data. It will revise the system so researchers can autonomously execute some direct costs and all indirect costs by introducing a negative list approach. The "Research24" service, which will allow multiple research support systems to be used with a single login, is being prepared for public release between May and June.
Starting in 2027, the government will also reform the R&D investment system. In the budget allocation process, it will adjust priorities based on performance to secure room for reinvestment and promote restructuring around necessary projects. After the abolition of preliminary feasibility studies, large new R&D projects will be managed by dividing them into research-type and build-type, and the government plans to introduce AI into the R&D budget deliberation process.
The government also presented a direction to foster small and midsize enterprises and startups and regions as key actors of innovation. It will expand inter-ministerial linkages for technology transfer, commercialization, and scale-ups, and increase investment in youth startups and commercialization of public technologies. For regions, it will expand "regional autonomous R&D," under which local governments directly plan R&D and take responsibility for outcomes, and it will also push to reform regional science and technology governance.
Park In-gyu, head of the Science and Technology Innovation Center, said, "The government has worked to restore the collapsed science and technology ecosystem and to lay the groundwork for innovation such as the AI great transition through bold R&D investment," adding, "We will bring together the capabilities of some 30 central administrative agencies that carry out government R&D projects, local governments, corporations, universities, and research institutes to bear fruit."