A substantial change begins. Korea looks to become an "unwavering science and technology powerhouse" by fostering innovative and bold R&D aimed at global No.1.
- The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the "Plan for Innovative and Bold R&D Nurturing System" at the 7th Science and Technology Advisory Council meeting.
① Pushing for the revision of the “National Research and Development Innovation Act” to establish K-Innovative and Bold R&D System
② Investment goals:
By 2025 - Over KRW 1 trillion in Innovative & Bold R&D
By 2027 - 5% of the total government R&D
③ Completion of the tailored whole-cycle (planning, selection, evaluation, etc.) R&D system for the Innovative & Bold R&D Project
※ Clear incentives will be provided. (E.g.: flexible targets and research management, differentiated evaluation method, and follow-up research support)
The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho, “MSIT”) announced the "Plan for Innovative and Bold R&D Nurturing System" at the 7th Deliberation Meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology (March 15, 2024).
Recently, major advanced countries have been accelerating efforts to maintain their leadership in technology and widen the gap with followers by establishing research institutions that specialize in innovative and bold projects. Consequently, the importance and urgency of "innovative and bold research and development," which can break the deadlock of qualitative stagnation and serve as the key to securing the future survival and prosperity of the nation, are increasing.
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Trends in Innovative and Bold R&D Initiatives in Major Countries |
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⦁ US: stablished multiple institutions benchmarking DARPA (established in 1958).
※ ARPA-E (2009, DOE), ARPA-H (2022, National Institutes of Health)
⦁ Europe: Established research management agencies that oversee innovative and bold projects. (E.g.: UK’s ARIA (2022) and Germany’s SPRIN-D (2019)
⦁ Japan: Introduced the Moon-shot project (2018) to address national and global challenges
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In this context, while the government's policy shift towards leading-edge R&D has shown some achievements*, the perceived level of innovation and bold nature of government R&D, as well as the support environment for innovative and bold R&D, remains low. (According to a survey conducted in January 2024, rated on a scale of 7, innovation level scored at 3.4 and support environment at 3.2). The government assessed that in order to rapidly spread the DNA of innovation and bold challenge within our R&D ecosystem, bold policy support that surpasses the existing customs is needed, and that it calls for a unified team across the ministry and fields. In conjunction with the implementation of the "Innovative and Bold R&D Project Group System," initiatives have been devised to properly foster innovative and bold R&D from the perspectives of (i) governance, (ii) investment, and (iii) system establishment. The key points are as follows:
Legal basis: Revision of the Basic Science and Technology Act in 2021 and “Innovative & Bold R&D Project Initiatives by Ministry”.
E.g.: Alchemist Project (2019), Innovation Challenge Project (2020), Breakthrough Project and K-ARPA-H (2024), etc.
| (Task 1) Implementation of the "Innovative and Bold R&D Project Group" System |
For innovative and bold projects to be carried out as originally intended, a budget structure and research management system suitable for their nature must be firmly established. Despite the difficulty in defining innovativeness and boldness without disagreement, it is necessary to designate and manage projects with relatively high levels of innovation and boldness.
To this end, this agenda item initiates the "Innovative and Bold R&D Project Group" system stipulated in the Basic Science and Technology Act. Especially, the government took reference from the DARPA-like model and other various innovative and bold R&D concepts that have been discussed extensively by the international community to add project types suitable for Korea.
[ Key Concepts of Innovative and Bold R&D (Examples) ]
| Term |
Definition |
Source |
| High Risk, High Return Research |
Definition |
Research aimed at seeking solutions to scientific or societal challenges and transforming existing paradigms innovatively, demanding a high level of originality, having significant transformative potential, and a high risk of failure. |
OECD |
| Case |
❶Research with the potential to produce transformative results over a long period or in a wide range of fields.
❷Research addressing significant national needs.
❸Research areas that are highly original or involve various fields, making them unsuitable for traditional peer review methods. |
American Innovation and Competition Act |
| Transformative Research |
Research that can fundamentally change the understanding of major scientific or engineering concepts.
Research with an idea that can potentially create new paradigms or fields of science or engineering. |
US NSF |
The Innovative and Bold R&D projects are defined as "R&D projects aiming for the world's highest level or becoming the first, with a high possibility of failure but the potential for innovative ripple effects upon success." They are categorized into three types:
① Disruptive innovation-type, developing disruptive innovation technologies to carry out national missions.
② Super lead/New lead-type, aiming to secure world-leading level technology* to enhance national competitiveness or to seizing new markets**.
③ Creative challenge-type, supporting bold research by outstanding researchers (focusing on new conceptual design levels).
* Super lead technology: Global top-level technologies that will maintain Korea’s leadership position and keep widening the gap with followers.
** New lead technology: Technologies that are in early stage of development globally, through which new markets can be created and preemptively occupied.
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Innovative Mission-type
[Goal set based on National (Public) Need] |
Creative Challenge-type (Basic research)
[Goal set by researchers ] |
| Disruptive and innovative technologies |
Super lead / New lead technologies |
| R&D Content |
Developing disruptive innovative technologies that change the global industrial landscape or address transnational challenges. |
Strategic technology development aimed at securing world-class technology for enhancing national competitiveness or seizing new market opportunities. |
Support for challenging research by outstanding researchers, focusing on pioneering research at the level of new concept design. |
| Management Strategy |
• Mission-based, milestone-centered goal setting
• Meticulous management centered around the IPL* |
•Researcher-led topic and goal setting
•Selection based on the boldness, creativity, and originality of the research |
*The person responsible for planning and operating a project is given the title ““IPL (Innovative Program Leader)”, to ensure distictiveness.
The designation and management of the Innovative and Bold Project Group will be entrusted to a special committee under the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology (tentatively named the Special Committee for Innovative and Bold Research Promotion*), Each year, the committee will review and confirm the suitability of requested projects for the next year, including the Innovative and Bold Project Group from relevant ministries, through deliberation. However, in the first year of implementation (2024), to ensure speedy policy implementation, 21 projects from 6 ministries have been designated as the Innovative and Bold Project Group, including the following:
△Breakthrough R&D Project of the MSIT, △K-ARPA-H Project of the MOHW, △Industrial Technology Alchemist Project of MOTIE, △Future Challenge Defense Technology Development Project of MOD.
(Additional designations for other ministries’ requested projects are scheduled from April to June 2024.)
*Chair: MSIT’s Vice Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Members: Director General for STI, Deputy Minister-level personnel from Ministry of Economy and Finance, and around 15 private sector members.
| (Task 2) Establish and Operate a Cooperative Governance |
As mutual learning and accumulation of experiences to reduce trial and error are especially important for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects, the government has decided to establish and operate a Council on Innovative and Bold National R&D Projects, composed of the ministries in charge, specialized research management agencies, and researchers. The Council aims to break down silos between ministries by sharing relevant experiences and know-how, identifying challenges in making researcher-centered institutional improvements, discussing practical improvement measures, and exploring and coordinating the implementation of new programs for the next year in advance.
[ Council Operation Plan ]
| The Council on Innovative and Bold National R&D Projects (Tentative) |
•Chair: Deputy Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Coordination
• Participation: Director-General-level government official in charge of Innovative and Bold R&D Projects, specialized agencies, Innovative Program Leader (IPL) or Project Manager (PM)*, Representative of principal investigators (PI) |
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| Specialized Agency - IPL Committee |
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IPL – PI Committee |
In addition, the MSIT will review the designation and operation of the organizations that will take charge of Innovative and Bold R&D Projects under major research management specialized agencies, in line with the Inter-Ministerial Plan for Research Management Specialized Agency Innovation, which will be established in the first half of the year.
| (Task 3) Secure Investment Continuity in Innovative and Bold R&D |
Highly innovative R&D projects are characterized by high uncertainties, making it more difficult to secure investment continuity without special attention from the government than other projects. To tackle this challenge, the following measures will be taken:
① The investment target for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects is KRW 1 trillion in 2025, and 5% of the total government R&D budget in 2027 (estimated to be around KRW 1.58 trillion in 2027, based on the medium-term fiscal budget).
※ The share of DARPA-like R&D projects (DARPA, ARPA-E, etc.) in the total U.S. federal R&D budget in 2024 is about 3.6%, It is necessary to consider that there are different types of project, including disruptive innovation technology, super gap, new gap, and bold creativity.
② To overcome the inertia of hesitating investment without references (e.g., foreign cases), the main budget review criteria for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects will be based on the innovativeness of the research subject and the boldness of the research target.
③ DARPA-like (i.e. technology is not designated) program projects will be expanded by actively recognizing exemptions for innovative projects in the preliminary feasibility study and increasing the scores for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects.
④ The current expense allocation system, which does not distinguish different project types, will be improved to a system that separates the planning and evaluation management expenses for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects from others, in order to reflect the characteristics of Innovative and Bold R&D Projects, in which faithful project design and robust evaluation are key, and to secure a sufficient amount of planning and evaluation management expenses.
| (Task 4) Implementing a System Customized for Operating Innovative and Bold R&D Projects |
① To reflect the complaints from the field that it is difficult to properly implement the existing policies for Pioneering R&D Transition due to ambiguous regulations, strong efforts will be made to revise the National Research and Development Innovation Act (targeted for submission to the National Assembly in September 2024). The revision is expected to provide fundamental solutions to the issues that have been consistently raised by those involved in Innovative and Bold R&D Projects; for example, granting the Innovative Program Leader (IPL) full authority over planning and evaluation, and enabling flexible research execution by establishing moving targets and separate criteria for executing research grants to respond quickly to the changes in the global technological environment.
② In order to elicit the bold spirit of researchers, Innovative and Bold R&D Projects will move away from mechanical, quantitative evaluation based on target achievement to qualitative evaluation centered on the research process and experience, and actively recognize the value of honorable failure. In addition, for Innovative and Bold R&D Projects that have produced excellent results, related systems will also be improved so that follow-up projects can be designated without having to go through an open call (including amendments to the National Research and Development Innovation Act).
In addition, an archive system will be established and operated so that knowledge generated in the research process of Innovative and Bold R&D projects, which are national assets, can be accumulated and spread without being lost.
Innovative and Bold R&D is characterized by high difficulty, high uncertainty, large impact, and recognition of the value of failure, and is expected to add new dynamism to Korea's national R&D ecosystem and serve as its “heart.“
Minister Lee said, “As there is now a strong foundation for Korea to move toward a pioneering R&D paradigm, this initiative will serve as a catalyst for Korea's ascension to the status of a science and technology powerhouse. The MSIT will dramatically remove outdated obstacles in the research management system so that ministries and research institutes can properly plan and carry out Innovative and Bold R&D Projects as intended. We will further identify necessary incentives and implement projects in consultation with relevant ministries. The proposal announced today is the first step toward finding the right R&D model for Korea, and we will continue to make improvement to the policy through close communication with researchers.”
For further information, please contact the Public Relations Division (Phone: +82-44-202-4034, E-mail: msitmedia@korea.kr) of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Please refer to the attached PDF.