South Korea has tripled its budget for R&D in 2025 – how research and development is impacting the quality of scientific research and young researchers?
At the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS), nestled in the hilly campus of Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, director of operations, Michelle Randall, shows off the facilities. “This is where we isolate our scanning tunnelling microscopes (STM) from any vibrations,” she says, pointing to an 80-tonne concrete damper, a mechanism that reduces interfering movements to near zero. Scientists at QNS have been using STMs to image and manipulate individual atoms and molecule and are trying to create a device akin to the assembly of a device made from single atoms that allow multiple qubits to be controlled simultaneously. Science 382, 87–2, 2023. The work, done by QNS in collaboration with colleagues in Japan, Spain and the United States, could have applications in quantum computing, sensing and communication.
The QNS team is full of many different types of people, a glimpse of what research might look like in a country that is investing a lot in international collaboration. South Korea has tripled its budget for global research and development to more than one billion dollars in the next five years. The investment could see a shift away from using metrics like rankings and outputs in favour of boosting ties with leading overseas research institutions in strategic areas. There is a huge amount of money assigned to international research. In Germany, where the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy is located, Cha is the scientific director and holds joint positions with the KAIST and the Korean Institute for Basic Science.
Changes could come next year, as South Korea continues to adjust its spending in science. In June, the government proposed a record 24.8 trillion won for R&D focused on basic and applied scientific research in 2025, which is up from 2024’s 21.9 trillion won, although further details were not available at the time of writing.
Recent policy changes have exacerbated this problem. After widespread criticism, the South Korean government cut funding for research and development to only 14.7% at the end of the year. The amount of R&D spending is 5% of GDP, which is far above the average of 2.6% in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The cuts to basic funding have an disproportionate impact on the research of young researchers as stipends come from a professor’s own funding.
Taking on more joint projects with Europe could help to diversify South Korea’s internationally collaborative outputs in the Nature Index. The United States, which has a history with South Korea dating back to the 1950s, is the country with the highest collaborative Share for natural-sciences output. China forms South Korea’s second-strongest partnership, with a collaborative Share of 300.81, followed by Japan, at 114.88 (see ‘Research ties’).
In 2023, the South Korean government committed to boosting cooperation with southeast Asia in areas including cybersecurity and communications technologies, and with individual nations, such as Vietnam, to help advance digital transition and clean-energy sectors. Cha says that huge collaboration could happen if we work together.
Cha highlights southeast Asia, a region that has long been of strategic and diplomatic interest to South Korea, as a place with untapped potential for joint innovation projects. “For instance, in Indonesia, there’s no governmental institution in charge of AI,” she says, which could open up the possibility of future collaborations around ethical and strategic development of AI technologies.
Challenging conditions for foreign students might be contributing to South Korea’s low levels of retention after graduation. According to a 2022 report by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training in Seoul, the number of foreign students that are earning doctorates in South Korea quadrupled in the period 2012 to 2021. The proportion of foreign students who returned home after graduation has consistently increased over the last two years.
Religious and cultural differences also pose difficulties. Muaz Razaq, a student, who left Pakistan to pursue his PhD in computer science at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, is involved in a small mosque-reconstruction project next to his university that has ignited strong opposition from segments of the local community. There are many stories from Muslim students in South Korea about being teased by their peers over their food choices and lack of designated spaces for practicing their faith.
The role of international research in South Korea’s economic success: A case for a slowing growth rate of GDP per person in the 21st century
The Brain Pool programme, for PhD students, gives access to up to 300 million won per year for three years, and Brain Pool Plus, for outstanding researchers, gives up to 600 million won per year for ten years. MSIT also plans to introduce support programmes to help new arrivals settle in and build networks.
Seoul Robotics, a company that develops AI-powered software for autonomous driving and traffic management, has mandated an English-speaking work environment to attract international talent. The culture of such a company in South Korea is unusual and not enforced, says Evan Thomas, business development manager at Seoul Robotics. “The ability to communicate in English without constant translation and cultural interpretation has been a significant advantage compared to more traditional South Korean companies,” he says.
Cultural attitudes towards foreigners can also hinder long-term retention, says Thomas. Foreigners are discouraged from coming to South Korea because they are treated as temporary visitors rather than long-term residents. Less than half of the respondents to the Korea Institute of Public Administration’s survey claimed they accepted foreign nationals as members of South Korean society.
At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Hong Bui got a job after finishing her PhD at the QNS. Bui cites the limited permanent career opportunities that are available to international researchers in Seoul as one of her reasons for wanting to leave, despite having a positive experience in QNS’s internationally focused environment. “South Korean companies often value overseas experience more than domestic experience, and many workplaces require Korean language proficiency,” she says.
The methods that today’s democratically elected South Korean government uses to support economic development have evolved, but the philosophy of strategic investment tied to detailed performance metrics remains. Can the same result be achieved when companies that were once supported by government funding become global giants that are not easy to influence?
There are signs that the country is moving in the wrong direction. In the 1980s, South Korea’s compound annual growth rate of GDP per person reached almost 12%, but had slowed to 7.2% in the 1990s, 4.8% in the 2000s and 2.4% in the 2010s. This figure has since stabilized while remaining below that of other advanced economies, including Canada and Italy. “We have been growing slower and slower, and the government is quite worried,” says So Young Kim, who was appointed to chair a presidential commission in March, to propose solutions. “The new administration has been trying to revamp policies, institutions and funding structures to regain strength in science and technology, so that we can have another Miracle on the Han River.”
Creating tailored programmes for funding science with the potential to be paradigm-shifting was a key recommendation of the OECD innovation review. Many people that we interviewed understood the need for more high-risk, high-return research, and some in positions of influence were starting to work on it. The level of change that is required has not been appreciated. South Korea’s leading universities are not free from regulation. The government has designated some as ‘research universities’ — including Seoul National University (SNU) and KAIST — that receive more funds, “but instead of just leaving these well-resourced institutions alone to set strategies, there are still a lot of rules”, says Hemmert.
The short-term nature of funding has been linked to the lack of innovation in research. “Our funding programmes are usually very short, typically one or three years,” says So Young Kim. A heavy emphasis is placed on measuring output in terms of top-tier journal publications and patent registration, as the mid-term performance milestone is set. New funding can no longer be used for research if you don’t do well in the current programme. Researchers are forced to focus on quick wins.
“For really cutting-edge research, you need a more patient approach,” says Hemmert. He suggests that research in Japan offers an interesting point of reference as the same topic can be researched for decades in multi-generational labs. “Japanese scientists have picked up a good number of Nobel prizes, but South Korea has zero,” says Hemmert. When studying the profiles of the Japanese scientists, they often worked on a particular scientific problem for decades.
Although the country’s research universities often rank highly in industry–academia linkage metrics such as patents filed and spin-outs launched, there’s room for improvement, says Hemmert. “They understand the need to collaborate more, yet when it comes to implementation, it’s still a bit chequered.”
Expanding a programme to allow men to serve out their military service while working in their university labs is one of the options being considered by the government. The bigger challenge, I think, is that we make studying science and technology more enjoyable for those who are interested in it. She says that students and early career researchers often feel as though they are stuck doing manual labour in the lab, rather than being taught how to conduct research, which can be very unrewarding. It’s important for our students to have intrinsic motivation. Professors need to become role models, demonstrating that through this career we live a meaningful life,” says So Young Kim.
