Minister Bae Gyeong-hun of the Ministry of Science and ICT./Courtesy of News1

The Ministry of Science and ICT will work on establishing innovation measures for research and development.

On the 16th, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it held a meeting for research sites on R&D innovation at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. Attending the meeting were not only officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT but also Ha Jeong-woo, senior official in AI future planning at the presidential office. Approximately 30 researchers and students, including Professor Cheon Seung-hyun from Sejong University, participated in the discussion.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that it plans to prepare and announce an R&D ecosystem innovation plan by September. The goal is to uncover issues and find alternatives centered on the private sector, rather than being led by the government. To this end, it will establish a 'Real R&D Promotion Committee' composed of experts from academia, industry, and research to gather opinions on innovative measures and conduct visits to research sites across the country.

The Ministry of Science and ICT also launched a public communication platform called 'Everyone's R&D,' where anyone can submit their opinions online. It noted that opinions would be organized in an efficient format for policy reflection through an AI analysis system and incorporated into actual policies.

Bae Gyeong-hun, the Minister of Science and ICT, said, "It is essential to transition from the government-led R&D initiative to a private sector-driven planning-investment-evaluation system where researchers directly participate from the stage of 'What should be researched?'. We plan to listen to the voices from the field in various ways and prepare practical measures that the research community can feel."