Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP) and National Research Foundation of Korea concluded a business agreement on November 4th and decided to widely exchange information and cooperate with each other across the entire field in which the two organizations carry out national R&D projects.
 
The business agreement this time has been promoted to attempt the advancement of R&D and science/technology through a more organic and systematic cooperation between KISTEP which carries out the functions such as policy planning and performance evaluation in executing national R&D projects which amount to 18 trillion KRW　and NRF which is an organization specialized in support for and management of researches.
 
For this, the two organizations plan to closely cooperate with each other in the fields of ▲ Discovery of Superior Performance and Proliferation of Performance, ▲ Verification and Analysis of Treatise Performance of National R&D Projects by utilizing the KCI of NRF, and ▲ Development of National R&D Project Assessment Index and Institutional Improvement.
 
In addition, the two organizations plan to actively cooperate with each other by jointly operating education and training programs of the major works of the two organizations such as R&D policy/strategy study, program planning, industry/university cooperation, jointly hosting international events, and carrying out joint studies on policy planning tasks.

President Youngah Park of KISTEP said, "If the capabilities of NRF, which is an organization specialized in support for and management of studies, and the expertise of KISTEP in planning, investigation, analysis and assessment of science and technology are shared through this business agreement, we are confident that the efficiency in promoting national R&D projects will be enhanced."
 
President Min Keun Chung of the NRF said, "For efficient and systematic performance of national R&D projects, macroscopic policy planning/establishment and opinions of research sites are required to closely communicate with each other at the state level, and this business agreement will be an opportunity for the two organizations to share and jointly utilize the diverse knowledge and professional information accumulated in the two organizations."

KISTEP, celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, is an organization specialized in planning and assessment of R&D that presents future visions and guidelines across the entire national R&D, and takes exclusive responsibility for establishment of the direction for national science and technology, prediction of future science and technology, establishment of the strategic investment direction for national R&D and optimum allocation of budget, and preliminary feasibility study and assessment.

NRF is a representative national organization specialized in research management that was newly launched in 2009 by integrating Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, Korea Research Foundation, and Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of S&T into one for enhancement of efficiency and advancement of the National Basic Research Support System covering the entire academic field, and carries out promotion of basic studies and human resource fostering projects.