S. Korea ranks 8th in research and development outputs

It was found that South Korea only ranked 8th in research and development outputs in the world despite investing 5.2 percent of its GDP in research and development projects, thereby standing in 2nd place as of 2022. The world-famous academic journal Nature Index assessed that the country recorded surprisingly minor outputs despite enormous scientific investments.

Nature Index's special issue on South Korea on Wednesday clearly showed that the country makes big investments but insignificant achievements. This international journal, a companion journal of the prestigious academic journal Nature, tracks and evaluates data on each country’s impact and competitiveness in research and development.

As of 2022, Israel ranked 1st in terms of share of R&D investment compared to GDP (5.6 percent), followed by South Korea (5.2 percent), the United States (3.6 percent), Japan (3.4 percent) and Germany (3.1 percent) according to Nature Index. Only the top two countries surpassed the five percent threshold.

However, in the same year, South Korea only ranked 8th in terms of research achievements. The United States topped the list, followed by China and Germany. Nature Index assesses country-level R&D competitiveness based on the independently invented index “Share” to measure the influence of each country’s research efforts.

Nature attributed the country’s inefficiencies in science inputs and outputs to the failure to obtain a variety of talents and the worsening cycle of academia and industry. According to the journal, the South Korean scientific field is so rigid and conservative that competent international scientists are not attracted to the country, and even domestic talents leave for overseas opportunities. It also stated that domestic regulations hinder academic research outputs from converting into industrial achievements.


최지원 기자 jwchoi@donga.com