Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute scenery./Courtesy of News1

The Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has been found to have submitted existing technology packaged as deliverables in its localization project for virtual reality (VR) content creation tools, with ongoing misconduct related to the project revealed in an audit.

According to a comprehensive audit report released by the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) on the 24th, circumstances violating research ethics were confirmed in ETRI's 'Domestic VR engine and authoring tool development project,' which was pursued over eight years with an investment of 35.7 billion won since 2015. The audit committee has demanded disciplinary measures against those involved at ETRI.

The audit report states that the project was conducted as a private corporation provided its own VR engine source code to ETRI. The project leader, A, used this external source code to craft a tool and presented it as if it were developed in-house under the name 'Danuri VR,' posting it as a deliverable on the ETRI website and submitting it as research and development results.

The issue does not end there. Of the five pieces of content reported to be produced with 'Danuri VR,' three were revealed to actually operate based on foreign VR engines. The project, purportedly aimed at domestic production, relied on foreign technology.

The researcher also facilitated the trainee in their department to secure projects. This trainee, with only two months of research experience, successfully won three VR-related projects by acquiring services from a joint research organization.

Additionally, this researcher failed to report knowledge of an attempt by the representative of a joint research organization to offer bribes and allowed the corporation to continue participating in the project. As a result, the corporation received approximately 1.1 billion won in project funding.

The audit committee has demanded severe penalties against the research leader while notifying ETRI to conduct legal reviews and additional actions regarding the research misconduct.

The audit committee also confirmed that funds were inappropriately executed in another ETRI project, 'Development of a terahertz-based personal shoe security screening system.' Launched in 2021 with an estimated budget of 21.2 billion won, the project aimed to develop technology for security screening without removing shoes but was rated 'extremely poor' in 2023 evaluations, resulting in its termination. Until the termination of the agreement, the amount of government-supported development costs actually executed was 13.487 billion won, and the agency in charge of the project, ETRI, was notified to impose additional monetary sanctions of 145.9 million won.