R&D fund is not easy money

Researchers at some universities and companies who used the R&D government fund for basic science for their business trip submitted a superficial report and added their personal schedule or visited places that are unrelated to the purpose of the trip. Rep. Kim Jae-kyung of the ruling Saenuri Party found 54 such cases out of 658 business trip reports. The National Research Foundation of Korea, which assesses such reports, could not detect such cases while taxpayers’ money is wasted.

Korea’s total R&D spending is the world’s sixth largest with 63.7 trillion won (57.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014 or the world’s largest portion (4.3 percent) of GDP. However, 40 renowned Korean scientists filed a petition to the National Assembly to ask for a fundamental change in R&D budgeting and implementation processes, saying, “Research in basic science is threatened despite the government’s continuous R&D spending.” The petition included 494 scientists and 1,498 scientists joined the online petition. Scientists expressed anger at the reality where basic science is marginalized despite the large R&D spending.

Those who study basic science point out that only 6 percent of the total R&D budget is allocated to creative research that researchers want. Moreover, 80 percent of the budget was allocated to small basic science projects on a free topic costing 50 million won (44,820 dollars) or less, an amount that can barely cover the cost of graduate student researchers. Projects of over one billion won (896,000 dollars), which account for only 6 percent of total R&D projects, represent over 60 percent of the total R&D budget.

Though the R&D budget is sufficient given the size of the Korean economy, it is not allocated to the right place and the result is far from what you can expect from focus and efficiency. Nature even pointed out that Korea wants to take the lead with money. The moral hazard of some researchers who take the R&D fund as easy money must be rooted out. Many lament why Korea cannot produce a Nobel Prize winner around the time the Nobel Prizes are awarded. The result can be fruitful only if the R&D spending is properly funneled into basic research and implementation is thoroughly monitored.