Government Affiliated Research Institutes Specialize into 60 Institutes

The 19 government related organizations in the science-technology field under the Office for Government Policy Coordination, including the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, will be reorganized into 60 “major research institutes for the future.”

Plans to increase the 30~40 percent level of the total research expenses, including employment costs that the government supports for basic research expenses, to 60~80 percent are being pushed.

Accordingly, researchers are uneasy in that restructuring movements such as cut-backs may be carried out as was done during former President Kim Dae-jung’s administration.

Based on the final report on “the strategic development plan for government affiliated research institutes to prepare for the $20,000 per-capita income era” handed by the Science & Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) yesterday, the Office for Government Policy Coordination plans to hold a public hearing during February and to conclude the reorganization plan.

Government affiliated research institutes took the leading roles in developing industrial technology during the 1960s and 1970s. However, coming into the 1990s, as the research conducted in enterprises and universities increased, criticism and controversy on the government affiliated research institutes’ identity continued on. After the foreign exchange crisis, 15 percent of the researchers were reduced, making their social position insecure, and excellent human resources left one by one, demoralizing the researchers. Nevertheless, these government affiliated research institutes are still the treasure houses for the science-technology field, holding 7,400 people as major human resources in this field.

Therefore, this reorganization plan is focusing on establishing a definite role for the government affiliated research institutes to conduct basic and public research requiring government support, to let human resource alterations between research institutes done freely, and to make a flexible organization in which the founding and closing of research institutes can be done easily as society changes.

According to the report, the current 19 research institutes, which have an average of 350 people, will be reorganized and decentralized into some 60 specialized “futuristic major research institutes” made up of 50~100 people. These “futuristic major research institutes” tentatively called as “bio-chip research institute” or “research institute of dementia and its medical treatment,” and others, all have a clear purpose for research. These institutes will be under the existing research institute for the time being, but the incorporated research institutes will be gradually abolished.

Meanwhile, for the researchers who want to start a business, a “Korea Research and Development Corporation” will be established and will be supported to grow into firms providing research development for companies.

As for the method of reorganization, the 19 research institutes will take the initiative to draw out a roadmap, and after deliberation of the assumingly “government affiliated firm development committee,” this will become the frame for each research institute.

Regarding this matter, adviser Lee Kew-ho (senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology) of the research and development council for government affiliated research institutes said, “I agree that the government affiliated research institutes should actively change into the core for national policy research, but I am worried that a reduction may lose the enthusiasm for research, just like the 1999 reorganization.”

wolfkim@donga.com