The government will select 1,000 young scientists and engineers with high potential to grow into world-class researchers as "next-generation national scientists" and support them for up to five years. The plan goes a step beyond existing support for top-tier researchers to select a large pool of high-potential researchers and foster them over the long term.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 31st that it finalized the Fifth Basic Plan for Fostering and Supporting Science and Technology Talent at a deliberation meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology. The basic plan for fostering and supporting science and technology talent is the highest-level statutory plan for talent policy in science and technology, and the fifth plan applies from this year through 2030.
Under this plan, national scientists will be operated in two tiers: leader-level and next-generation. For the next-generation tier, targeting researchers with strong potential to grow into world-class scholars, 200 people will be selected each year for five years starting in 2027, for a total of 1,000. Each person will receive 50 million won per year in research activity funds for an initial three years, with an additional two years of support after evaluation.
The leader-level tier targets world-class researchers under age 55 who are active in Korea, with 20 selected each year starting this year, for a total of 100. The support amount is 100 million won per year, also for up to five years. Combined, the leader-level and next-generation tiers total 1,100 people.
The government says the national scientist program will be designed differently from projects that simply provide large research grants. At a briefing on the 25th, Lee Jun-bae, director general for Future Talent Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "We wanted to create role models," and noted, "We will include not only university professors and basic scientists but also researchers in industry and engineering."
The fifth basic plan also includes measures to improve jobs and research environments so that young researchers can remain in Korea's research field. Universities, Government-funded research institute (government-funded research institutes), and the four institutes of science and technology will increase research staff, and "staff scientists," who are dedicated to research planning and equipment operation, will be developed as a professional research track.
Staff scientists are not mere assistants to professors or principal investigators; they are full-time professional researchers responsible for operating large-scale equipment, research planning, and experimental and technology commercialization. The government plans to design the job category, conduct pilot hiring, and then move to regularize the positions.
Graduate students in science and engineering will also be treated as independent research personnel and receive more support. The number of universities participating in the research living stipend, the "Korean-style stipend," will be increased to around 70 by 2030, and the number of scholarship recipients, including those on the Presidential Science Scholarship, will be expanded to about 10,000. In the artificial intelligence (AI) and AI transformation (AX) fields, 240 specialist research personnel will be allowed to serve at large companies and government-funded institutes.
The plan also includes measures to increase long-term research. Support for basic research will be expanded so that, over time, 30% of all faculty and 50% of full-time faculty can receive it, and follow-up support will be strengthened so that projects can continue after previous ones end. The "single-topic deep-dive research," which studies one subject for more than 10 years, will also be expanded.
In addition, at the regional level, more than 40% of basic and fundamental research will be allocated with priority, and block-funding-type research and development (R&D), in which regions directly set research fields, will be expanded. Overseas, bundled support for visas, housing, and children's education will be provided to attract 2,000 outstanding researchers by 2030.
The government also decided to create an integrated management system that links science and technology workforce data from education to employment, job changes, and settlement to confirm whether these talent policies are producing real effects.
Meanwhile, tasks that require budgets and legal revisions—such as the scale of increases in research personnel at universities and government-funded institutes and the specific employment structure of staff scientists—will be finalized in the subsequent design process.
Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "This fifth basic plan focuses on building a full-cycle ecosystem where science and technology talent can feel pride, grow freely, and thrive on the land of the Republic of Korea," and added, "By having ministries act as one team and implementing this plan without a hitch, we will build a 'country that dreams of scientists.'"