The forum served as a meeting place to review major political achievements in S&T and discuss future policy plans for Moon Jae-in administration, which marked its 2nd anniversary. The forum on ‘Going Beyond the Rearcher-oriented to Reach the Public : The 2 Years of Moon Jae-in Government S&T Policies Achievements and Future Challenges’ was held on May 10th (Fri) at the Lotte World Tower by KISTEP.
 

[▲ [Opening Address] Sang-seon Kim (President, KISTEP)



[▲ [Congratulatory Address] Kwangyun Wohn (Chairperson, National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST))]

 

 

The forum began with an opening address by President Sang-seon Kim (KISTEP), a congratulatory address by Chairperson Kwangyun Wohn (NST), followed by presentation by 4 experts, and panel discussion followed the last.

First, Byoung-Ho Son (Vice President, KISTEP) inspected general results of S&T policies of Moon Jae-in administration and presented policy directions that should be pursued in priority for the future.

[▲ [Presentation] Byoung-Ho Son (Vice President, KISTEP)]


 

He emphasized, “The current government has led to major achievements such as the opening of the 20 trillion-won era of the government R&D budget and the innovation of researcher-oriented R&D systems based on operating philosophy of ‘people-centered S&T policy.’ The future direction of policy implementation requires main tasks such as promotion of major projects, introduction of S&T-based mega vision and expansion of R&D budget in order to achieve continued development of growth engines and social contribution through R&D.” He added, “In particular, it is important to create innovative results that can be felt by both researchers and the public even further from the focus of improving the R&D system to complete the ‘people-centered S&T policy.’
 

[▲ [Presentation] (from the left) Sunhwa Han (Director General, Policy Office, NST), Hee Yoon Lee (Director General, Directorate for Basic Research in Science and Engineering, National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)), Eunmi Jung (Executive Director, Center for Growth Engine Industries, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET))]

 

Sunhwa Han (Director General, NST) introduced major achievements and changes in the current government-funded research institutes operation policies, including the establishment of development plan of S&T for the government-funded research institutes, and presented its operational plans for the future.

Hee Yoon Lee (Director General , NRF) explained current the achievements and strategies of basic research policies that the now government has been emphasizing, in addition to the response from research sites, and what needs to be improved in the future.

Eunmi Jung (Executive Director, KIET) evaluated the achievements of the policy on fostering innovative growth engines to realize innovative growth and suggested the tasks that the S&T field and the business community should cooperate in order to develop in the future.

 [▲ Panel Discussion]

 

The panel discussion was followed with Min-Koo Han (President, The Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST)), Sung-Su Kim (President, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT)), Meanson Noh (Research Fellow, Korea Small Business Institute (KOSBI)), Sangook Park (Associate Professor, Seoul National University (SNU)), Wi Chin Song (Senior Research Fellow, Science and Technology Policy Institute, (STEPI)), Yong Ha Yoo (Journalist, Seoul Ilbo), Kyung Mi Lee (Head, Chungbuk Institute for Regional Program Evaluation) and Sung Soo Kim (The Ministry of Science and ICT (Director, Science & Technology Policy Division, MSIT)). During the panel session, they shared in-dept on the review the policy of government-funded research institutes, basic research and growth engine policies.

President Sang-seon Kim (KISTEP) emphasized, “Over the past two years, the government has made efforts to establish a new framework for the national technology innovation system such as establishing the 4th Basic S&T Plan and restoring the Meeting of the related Committee for S&T. The government’s efforts for innovation can improve the actual innovation growth and the quality of people’s lives. We have prepared this forum to inspect the achievements of the past and to discuss and communicate policy directions that should be pursued in the future.” He added, “If the S&T is the seed of the future, we should invest in S&T, and S&T field should repay with its achievements such ass innovation growth and job creation. Looking further ahead at research sites, we will put our best effort not to create a policy for just a policy.”