Korea should resolve R&D budget issues to regain trust

[Photo by Ko Jae-won]

Deans from engineering schools representing South Korea and the United States met recently to discuss international cooperation in the field of research and development (R&D). During their discussion, they also raised concerns about issues with the Korean government’s policy implementation and operational methods.

“There are too many obstacles in conducting international R&D with Korea,” Park Ah-hyung, dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, said. “When trying to apply for research support through the system, there are blockages right from the identification stage. Research support applications also need to be written in Korean only.”

Deans from engineering schools representing Korea and the United States gathered to discuss international R&D cooperation during the U.S.-Korea Conference (UKC) 2024 held in San Francisco on August 25th, 2024.

Kim Yong-oh, dean of the college of engineering at Seoul National University and UCLA’s Park met for a discussion and while both deans agreed on the necessity of international cooperation, they raised policy concerns.

Park noted that Korea’s outdated joint research systems and infrastructure, such as identity verification and Korean-language research support forms, need to be modernized.

“Even UCLA professors have given up on international cooperation because of these issues,” Park said. “Is Korea’s international cooperation only with Korea-Americans? Wasn’t the goal to bring Nobel laureates and other researchers to advance Korea’s science and technology?”

The recent issue of the fluctuating R&D budget was also pointed out as a factor undermining trust in the international scientific community.

“It is not acceptable to fill international cooperation budgets by cutting R&D budgets in other fields through a zero-sum game,” she said. The implication is that in international cooperation, where trust is crucial, a budget operation that is swayed by zero-sum games and can change at a moment’s notice cannot inspire confidence in the scientific community.

“When trying to persuade the United States to collaborate with Korea, we have nothing to say,” Park said.

The Korean government has increased the international cooperation budget by cutting R&D budgets in other fields. The R&D budget for 2024 was reduced by 5.2 trillion won ($3.9 billion) from the previous year’s figure, while the global R&D budget increased from about 500 billion won to about 1.8 trillion won. The budget for 2025 is also set to allocate about 2.2 trillion won.

Despite the rapid increase in the budget and the initiation of various new projects, there are concerns about the Korean government’s inadequate preparations in the research field. The Boston Korea Project, for example, is a major international cooperation initiative by the government that is struggling due to issues with overhead costs. Overhead costs are fees collected by institutions from research funds that are used for expenses such as rent, electricity, and management.

Korean researchers are seeking international cooperation with prestigious universities such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins but differing and generally high overhead cost standards at each university are hindering joint research agreements.

“The issue would be resolved if the Korean government, as the funding agency, would establish guidelines for overhead cost ratios first,” Park said. “Funding agencies in the United States have worked with multiple institutions in this manner. It is not that Korea does not know how to do this.”

Such guidelines would also be easier for leaders like Kim and Park to promote international cooperation.

Issues such as inadequate international research systems and evaluation criteria for international cooperation were raised. However, there was a consensus that Korean researchers are considered attractive collaboration partners by international researchers.

“The UCLA president always emphasizes that Korea cannot be ignored,” Park said. “Researchers are very eager to collaborate with Korea.”

Both deans also described the current time as a favorable moment to promote international cooperation, given the increasing number of overseas Korean scientists reaching leadership levels, such as Park, who was appointed as the first Korean American dean at a major U.S. engineering school.

“Through international cooperation, Korea and the United States can achieve a win-win situation,” Park said. “Cooperation between engineering schools can lead to rapid innovation.”