The Ministry of Science and ICT is beginning the first step to draft the 2027 national research and development project budget proposal.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said it will hold the "2027 national research and development project budget briefing" in Sejong for five days starting on the 11th. The briefing is an initial step in the process of drafting next year's government research and development (R&D) budget proposal and was prepared to review the implementation of major national research and development projects and their budget requests.
A total of 166 field-specific experts under the Operating Committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology will take part in the briefing. The experts will review and offer opinions on the necessity of technology development for each project, the validity of government support, the appropriateness of the budget scale, and the potential to make projects more efficient.
The Science and Technology Innovation Center at the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to conduct budget allocation and coordination based on the experts' review results from the briefing. In this process, the budget-drafting guidelines; the 2027 national research and development investment direction and criteria; key government policies; and sector-specific investment strategies will be considered together. The ministry will compile these and prepare a budget allocation and coordination plan by the end of next month.
Starting this year, a specialized AI service will also be introduced to support deliberations on the national R&D budget. The AI service will be used to check for similarities and overlaps among projects and to reduce the burden of preparing deliberation materials. The aim is to cut repetitive review tasks during the budget deliberation process and support more systematic analysis.
Park In-gyu, head of the Science and Technology Innovation Center, said, "We will thoroughly reduce waste while boldly investing in fields that are truly needed," and added, "We will ensure that R&D outcomes that the public can feel spread quickly, based on science, technology, and AI."