KISTEP held the 137th KISTEP Wednesday Forum Strategies for Researcher-Led Basic Research on August 11 (Wednesday) to discuss policies and investment directions, with increased R&D budget, to advance basic research in Korea.

The Wednesday Forum was broadcast live online without external participants to respond to coronavirus, and can be viewed again through the KISTEP YouTube channel.

(Link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea-MOKAntq0

"The government proposed a plan to expand the basic research budget from 1.26 trillion won (2017) to 2.52 trillion won (2022) in the 2017 Government Administration Plan," said Sang-sun Kim, president of KISTEP in an opening speech. "We hope that the problems raised during the basic research policy promotion will be a valuable time to find out what topics Korea's basic research should think about in order to take a leap forward," he added.

▲Sang-sun Kim, president of KISTEP, explains the significance of the forum.

▲Seung-bok Lee, professor at Seoul National University

Professor Seung-bok Lee of Seoul National University, who started the presentation, explained the key issues thoroughly on changes in the field of basic research projects over the past four years. He concluded the presentation by suggesting that the government should come up with policies that embrace the entire ecosystem of basic research rather than focusing on individual projects.

The panel discussion was led by Young-soo Ryu (director of KISTEP), and participated by Young-joo Jang (professor at Dankook University), Ki-bum Park (senior researcher at STEPI), and Jung-yoon Kim (director of NRF of Korea).

▲ Young-joo Jang, professor at Dankook University

In the 5th Basic Plan for Science and Technology, some basic research should be boldly handed over to the Ministry of Science and Technology to simplify the system by further specializing in establishing a lifecycle support system for basic research.

▲ Ki-bum Park, senior researcher at STEPI

“The content of research and investment direction should be changed in accordance with the university's education,” he said. He also criticized that the contents of research are rather being uniformized by the basic research projects thesedays.

▲ Jung-yoon Kim, director of NRF of Korea

In order to improve the ecosystem of basic research and to ease the research process, allocation among the safety net should be studied in addition to ways to raise awareness of basic research nationally.

KISTEP distributes the Wednesday Forum Focus, which includes the main contents and implications of the forum, to policy customers. You can subscribe via sending us to the email address below.

(Subion to the Wednesday Forum Focus) kch@kistep.re.kr

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