Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the People Power Party, noted on the 21st, "We will expand the current research and development (R&D) budget, which is at 4% of GDP, to over 5%."
On the 58th Science Day, Kweon Seong-dong said during an emergency response committee meeting held at the National Assembly, "We will increase both the quantity and quality of the national research and development budget." He mentioned that particularly, research and development in 12 strategic technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and biotechnology, would be expanded to a scale of 10 trillion won within 5 years.
He said, "While strengthening basic research and regional support, I will also push forward with subsequent legislation for the abolition of the preliminary feasibility study system for research and development, which was discussed with the government last year."
Kweon Seong-dong continued regarding support for research personnel, "We will expand the scholarship program for outstanding graduate students in the science and engineering fields from the current 1,000 to 10,000," and added, "We will increase separate projects to support post-doctoral researchers' research fees and personnel costs and restore the compensation for employee inventions to non-taxable and other income to ensure research incentives work effectively."
He also mentioned plans to reduce the administrative burden on research personnel, saying, "We will simplify the project proposal and research report formats and ensure autonomy for basic research without annual reports or mid-term evaluations," and added, "We will increase joint research with government-funded research institutes and the use of grants equipment, and actively support industry-academia cooperation to help young researchers find employment."
Kweon Seong-dong remarked, "If the Democratic Party of Korea comes to power, pseudo-science, which pushed for the phase-out of nuclear energy with a single movie, will prevail again," and stated, "The Democratic Party's violent politics, which threatens to blow away the budget and organization while manipulating national statistics, will undermine the foundation of science and technology." He added, "We will ensure that science isn't swayed by politics so that researchers can stand tall, and the People Power Party will take responsibility for that path."