- Ministry of Science and ICT moves to consolidate overlapping functions among affiliated public institutions

- Four regional national science museums to be unified under single foundation

The Korea Research Foundation's Daejeon headquarters. [Herald DB]
The Korea Research Foundation's Daejeon headquarters. [Herald DB]

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is launching a sweeping overhaul to consolidate overlapping functions among its affiliated public institutions. The Korea Research Foundation will absorb the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs, the Korea Data Agency will be folded into the National Information Society Agency, and four regional national science museums will be brought under a single legal entity.

The ministry announced Tuesday that it will pursue the reforms in line with the government's "Public Institution Function Reform Plan," unveiled Sept. 3, with the aim of streamlining duplicated functions and strengthening coordination among agencies.

Under the plan, the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs will be incorporated as an affiliate of the Korea Research Foundation. Combining the foundation's support for basic and original R&D with the commercialization agency's expertise, the ministry aims to strengthen end-to-end R&D linkages — from research planning through results identification to technology transfer and commercialization. The merged organization will also channel public and private technology demand, drawing on the commercialization agency's networks, into the planning of new research projects.

The Korea Data Agency will be integrated as an affiliate of the National Information Society Agency. The plan combines NIA's data policy support capabilities with the Korea Data Agency's more than 30 years of accumulated expertise in data industry promotion, utilization and distribution, boosting the government's ability to execute data policy in response to the spread of AI.

Four regional national science museums — the National Daegu Science Museum, National Gwangju Science Museum, National Busan Science Museum and National Gangwon Science Museum — currently operating as separate legal entities, will be merged into a single body to be called the National Science Museum Foundation, a working title.

The functions of Innopolis FNS, a subsidiary of the Korea Research and Development Special Zone Promotion Foundation, will also be separated and transferred. Facility management and cleaning operations will move to the Korea Science and Technology Facility Management Corporation, while security and information services will go to the Korea Science and Technology Security Management Corporation. The special zone foundation will shed the burden of managing the subsidiary and focus its resources on fostering research and development special zones, including regional autonomous R&D and deep tech startups.

The Special Post Office Pension Management Unit, which has 12 employees, will be merged into the Post Office Facility Management Corporation. A dedicated special post office pension management center will be established within that body to maintain pension administration expertise while consolidating shared organizational functions.

The ministry said it will pursue the legislative amendments needed to carry out the institutional mergers and will draw up a detailed roadmap. During the integration process, it plans to guarantee the continued employment and existing terms of staff, and will gather input from related ministries, local governments and labor unions.


nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com