The government’s Plan resulted in a mixed reception from researchers: although the intention to strengthen support for basic research was taken positively, the objective of producing, within just 10 years, 1,000 scientists capable of competing for Nobel Prizes received skeptical responses.

A paradigm shift from being a “fast follower” to a “fast mover”

Korea’s basic research began to be equipped with a support system through the passing of the Basic Research Promotion Act in 1989, and the scope of support has been expanded since then. For example, five-year comprehensive plans for the promotion of basic research have been implemented since 2005 and the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) was established in 2011, as a research organization that seeks excellence in basic science.
Despite such a short history, the support system has produced some outcomes. From an investment perspective, the government’s budget for basic research occupied 38.1% of the total R&D budget as of 2015, which is an increase from 25.6% in 2008. The government aims to raise the percentage to 40% by 2017.
With the publishing of papers in world-class journals, the level of research has improved as well. The total number of SCI papers has been on a steady increase from 34,353 papers in 2008 to 51,588 papers in 2014, in which year Korea was ranked as the world’s 10th largest SCI paper producer.
During the same period, the number of papers published in Nature, Science, and Cell, which are the world’s top three science journals, has more than doubled from 25 papers to 54 papers. In 2014, Korea was ranked 18th based on the number of papers it published in the three journals. Moreover, science and/ or engineering majors have been produced on a steady basis.
The problem is that most of the growth in the field of basic research has thus far been quantitative in nature: while the number of papers and patents has reached a world-class level, qualitative outcomes such as the impact factor (IF) of a science journal have been relatively poor. Furthermore, although Korea’s basic research has come up with some worldclass, commercializable technologies such as DNA scissors and wearable thermoelectric generators, industrial achievements related to these technologies have not been satisfactory.

President Geun-hye Park and major government officials
had a serious discussion on the “Basic Research
Development Plan for a Creative Future” at the meeting
of the 27th Presidential Advisory Council on Science &
Technology, which was held at the Blue House
on October 22.

The lagging qualitative growth of basic research stems orom the fact that it is a relatively new field in Korea, with less investment and accumulation of knowledge than those of advanced countries. In addition, the government has been focusing on quantitative performance, including the number of papers and patents, by applying uniform evaluation metrics to basic research projects.
Acknowledging such problems, the government has prepared the Basic Research Development Plan for a Creative Future, the gist of which is a paradigm shift from being a “fast follower” of advanced countries' research to a "first mover" that leads the world. Specifically, the Plan consists of the following four policy measures: to establish a support system that is customizable toresearchers' need; to produce and support up-and-comming young researchers; to improve research project evaluation criteria; and to strengthen the link between science/ technology and society.
Regarding the customizable support system, the government plans to continuously increase its “researcher-oriented” grants from its current level of being 22% of total research grants to 30% by 2017. The “researcher-oriented” grants support those individuals and groups who conduct basic research on the basis of their creative ideas. In addition, the government will flexibly allocare annual grants to meet the specific needs of research projects, instead of simply dividing a total grant amount by the number of the years of a project.
Furthermore, new methods will be adopted to produce and evaluate researchers around their 30s who conduct leading basic research. Another notable measure is the strengthening of long-term support for those researchers who concentrate on a single field of study in order to strive to be the best in that field.

Actions speak louder than words

The government’s plan to strengthen basic research created expectations among researchers. However, they also expressed disappointment with the objectives of producing 1,000 world-class scientists who are capable of competing for Nobel Prizes and creating 10 world-leading technologies because there have been lots of hastily created projects to meet the government’s goals that were nothing more than slogans.
An official at a government-funded research institute said, “For quite a while, I haven’t seen any slogan-like goals in the government’s science policies. Now, the Plan has the same old ‘maybe, or maybe not’ style objectives, which disappoints me. I don’t understand how the criterion of being ‘world-class’ is defined or how we can produce as many as 1,000 excellent researchers in such a short time frame.”
Considering the context behind the objective of producing 1,000 world-class cientists, there is some room for understanding the government’s intention. An analysis of the research outcomes of 73 Nobel Laureates over the last 10 years shows that 48 researchers (65.8% of the population) received Nobel Prizes in recognition of their research outcomes achived in their 20s and/ or 30s. In other words, they began to study new fields of research when they were relatively young and continued their research steadily, which led to Nobel Prizes.
However, it has hitherto been difficult for a young researcher starting out in a new field to be selected as a beneficiary of govenment grants. The reason for this is that previous achievements have been the main criteria for the selection of supported research projects. In such situations, young researchers are no match for established researchers who have produced their work over a long period of time.
Recognizing the importance of supporting up-and-coming researchers who have the potential to lead basic research in the future, the government included the “Next-decade-100” project in its Plan. The project aims to help alleviate some of the difficulties that young researchers face (for example, difficulties in setting up a laboratory and acquiring research funds). Specifically, 100 excellent researchers around their 30s will be selected annually and each will receive a total grant amount of 800 million won (approx. 670,000 US dollars) for five years. The government plans to select and support 1,000 young researchers for a period of 10 years with a total budget of 800 billion won (approx. 670 million US dollars).
Most researchers are of the opinion that the Plan will be meaningful if it is faithfully implemented. Seunghwan Kim, President of the Korean Physical Society and of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, said, “Rather than blindly sticking to the objective of producing 1,000 excellent researchers, it is more important to effectively implement the step-by-step measures of the Plan.” He added, “At this stage, we have to plant numerous seeds in the fields of basic research without conditions. After 20 to 30 years, we might be able to harvest research outcomes that are capable of winning Nobel Prizes.”
To sum up, researchers want the government not to adhere to slogan-like goals, but to steadily carry forward its policy of supporting basic research. If support for young researchers and basic research projects are maintained and expanded according to the Plan, current research efforts are likely to be rewarded by Nobel Prizes in the future.

Written by Geon-ho Kwon | Journalist for the Etnews