The Project-Based System (PBS), which has served as the backbone of South Korea's national research and development (R&D) for the past 30 years, is coming to an end. With full coverage of personnel costs — a long-held wish of the research community — now becoming reality, the "post-PBS" era has finally begun. This is not merely a change in the budget system. It marks the starting point of a systemic leap that transforms South Korea's R&D from a catch-up model chasing advanced-nation technology into a leading model that creates technology the world has never seen.
The government is using this as a catalyst and moving quickly to shift toward a strategic research project framework aimed at solving national challenges and producing large-scale results. The research community deeply shares this direction and seeks to seize the moment as an opportunity to become an agent of innovation and restore public trust.
But innovation is not completed through slogans alone. Top-down, one-way decision-making driven at a rushed pace without a precise roadmap or concrete timetable, along with the loss of a financial buffer zone due to restrictions on contracted projects, is adding considerable confusion at research sites. For this major transformation of the national system to achieve a soft landing without disruption, an urgent solution is needed to minimize the temporal, technical and financial gaps expected during the transition. This is possible not through piecemeal improvements to the budget system, but through a complete redesign of the operating system (OS) that drives research sites.
The first step is to establish independent governance on a solid legal foundation. As it happens, the National Assembly is discussing a full revision of the law on government-funded science and technology research institutes, which includes a special exemption barring such institutes from being designated as public agencies and the establishment of five-year master plans. For the law to take genuine effect, it must be reflected in the actual decision-making structure at research sites. Gathering the opinions of internal researchers who work in the field on the ground — not nominal experts — must be enshrined in law.
In addition, for government-funded research institutes to operate autonomously while responsibly carrying out national missions, the governance of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) must be carefully adjusted. The two organizations must clearly divide their roles to reduce overlap and excessive intervention. MSIT should secure policy consistency at the national level, while the NST should exercise substantive authority over budget allocation and coordination based on each institute's mission and performance, as well as over the appointment of institute heads.
Accountable management by institute heads and the redefinition of their missions are also essential. Institute heads must break free from ministerial interference and plan their institutes' capabilities along two main axes. One axis focuses on national strategic missions based on the needs of government ministries and businesses, proving the justification for public R&D investment; the other takes charge of creative foundational research to secure future seed technology. To ensure that the experience and insight of field researchers are fully reflected in policy, the establishment of an independent, researcher-centered council should be stipulated in law, and the participation of researcher representatives in key decision-making bodies such as boards of directors should be guaranteed.
Ultimately, the "path-creating" governance transformation that will lead the post-PBS era can be completed only through the research community's determined self-reinvention. Researchers must break free from the yoke of the passive follower they grew accustomed to over the past 30 years and evolve into "path creators" who open new markets with technology the world has never seen. Only when the government's bold support and governance innovation, the field's autonomy and accountability, and painstaking self-reinvention mesh perfectly like gears will government-funded research institutes finally repay public trust with overwhelming innovation results.
