- NST finalizes detailed Post-PBS implementation plan, institutes to unveil 'core missions' this year
- Project structures to shift toward basic and strategic research; rewards tied to performance, not contract size
- Common administrative functions to be centralized and specialized under NST; tech-transfer office to become permanent unit
Government-funded research institutes will overhaul their operating system as the government abolishes the Project-based System, under which researchers secured external research funding to cover their own personnel costs.
Research incentives will now be based on research outcomes rather than the amount of external funding secured, and each of the 23 state-funded institutes will set "core missions" that must be addressed at the national level. Common administrative tasks that had been scattered across the institutes will be centralized and specialized under the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST).
The Ministry of Science and ICT said NST adopted the plan, called the "Detailed Implementation Directions for Post-PBS to Help State-Funded Research Institutes Become National Flagship Research Institutes," at its 247th interim board meeting held Tuesday at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Seoul.
The Project-based System is a regime under which researchers secure funding and personnel costs by winning research projects from the government or outside institutions. It has been criticized for fueling competition among researchers to win projects and for producing research focused on short-term results. The government finalized the abolition of the system as a state policy task in September 2025. Since then, it has been shifting the research and operating systems of state-funded institutes toward a mission-centered approach.
The core of the new implementation plan is to shift the operating system of state-funded institutes from one centered on securing research funding to one centered on missions and performance.
The 23 institutes will each set core missions to focus their capabilities on and disclose them to the public within this year. They will also draw up research and development roadmaps and portfolios for carrying out those missions by the end of this year. Based on this, each institute will restructure its project portfolio into a "basic research-strategic research-exceptional government-commissioned projects" framework.
Evaluation and reward methods will also change. The appropriateness of an institute's R&D project management will be reflected in institutional evaluations, with the results tied to budgets and incentives. In particular, incentives such as research allowances will move away from the existing method of assessing how many projects an institute won. Instead, they will differentially reward outstanding research performance. The new reward system will apply to research projects starting next year.
A Ministry of Science and ICT official said, "Research allowances will be paid to individuals, and the scope will be determined by each institute through individual performance evaluations of researchers."
The government will also push to improve researchers' working conditions. The 2027 government budget bill tentatively includes a 3.9 percent pay increase for researchers at state-funded institutes. The government and NST plan to conduct a comprehensive survey of the entire compensation system at state-funded institutes and draw up improvement measures to attract and retain talented researchers.
Support systems will also be improved so researchers can focus on research instead of administrative work. Common administrative functions in five areas — including audits, grievance handling, recruitment and public relations, and information security — had been scattered across the institutes. They will now be centralized and specialized under NST. It plans to hire 100 staff members in the first phase. Individual institutes' research support organizations will be restructured to focus on providing direct support to researchers. As NST's organization expands, oversight will be strengthened through operational evaluations of newly created units and internal and external audits.
Technology commercialization functions will also be strengthened. NST will formally establish an integrated technology licensing office to support large-scale technology transfers and deep-tech startups that individual institutes struggle to carry out on their own. International cooperation and external public relations, which had been handled separately by each institute, will be brought under a joint response system across all state-funded institutes. The aim is to build them into a single national research institute brand.
NST Chairman Kim Young-sik said, "The abolition of the Project-based System is a change that the government has decided on and that the field has long awaited, but its success depends on how thoroughly the council and the state-funded institutes carry it out." He added, "We will support the follow-up measures so they are implemented without a hitch."
Koo Hyuk-chae, first vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "It is time for state-funded institutes to innovate on their own so they can carry out their core missions as national flagship research institutes that support national industries and pioneer the future." He added, "We will continue to upgrade our policies so the Post-PBS system can take root in the field."
nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com
