ETRI chief vows to shift 90% of research to mission-driven R&D by 2030

- Institute overhauls research structure ahead of PBS abolition, targeting jump from 22% to 90% mission-driven R&D

- Five strategic fields including AI and physical AI identified; researchers to get 80% of work hours for autonomous study

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute President Park Se-woong explains the institute's operational plans at a press briefing. [ETRI]

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea's flagship information and communications technology research body, is overhauling its research and development structure. The institute plans to move away from competitive contract research — where securing individual projects was the primary means of funding salaries and operations — and shift toward large-scale, mission-driven R&D aligned with national priorities. It aims to raise the share of mission-driven research from the current 22 percent to 90 percent by 2030.

ETRI President Park Se-woong, speaking Wednesday at his first press briefing since taking office, said the technology paradigm is shifting rapidly around AI and that fundamental changes are under way in the research environment for government-funded institutes, including the abolition of the project-based salary system known as PBS. "This is the moment for ETRI to build a new research framework," he said.

The most significant change involves the institute's R&D project structure. ETRI intends to use the abolition of PBS as a turning point — freeing researchers from the scramble for project funding so they can focus on their work. The institute will restructure its project portfolio around its own institutional mission and national strategic priorities, and will gradually increase the share of salaries covered by government grants.

ETRI will also establish an integrated institute-wide planning system centered on a strategic research planning unit. The goal is to break down silos between research divisions and identify large-scale projects spanning national strategic technologies, pressing social challenges, balanced regional development, global cooperation and convergence research across government-funded institutes.

On the research side, the institute is pursuing a strategy of focus and concentration. It has designated five strategic fields: AI, physical AI, three-dimensional communications, spatial convergence and AI-driven digital transformation. Key research pillars will include a multimodal foundation model, an "AI co-scientist" system, an "AI highway" combining AI and 6G, and a physical AI platform built on a robot foundation model. ETRI also plans to expand its in-house GPU private cloud and seek designation as a national high-performance computing center.

"Rather than being an institute that does everything adequately, we need to secure distinctive core technologies — what you might call a 'secret weapon' — in areas where the nation absolutely needs us and where no one else can do what ETRI does," Park said.

Researchers will be given greater autonomy. The institute plans to cultivate what it calls "boundary-free players" — researchers who work across organizational and disciplinary lines — and will allow selected researchers to devote 80 percent of their working hours to independent, immersive research. Unnecessary administrative burdens and formalistic research activities will be reduced, and the evaluation of patents and papers will shift from counting outputs to assessing their quality.

ETRI also plans to open itself up beyond its own walls. Rather than competing with universities and companies for individual projects, the institute aims to transform into an open R&D platform where researchers converge to tackle national challenges. It will expand visiting research opportunities for university professors, student participation in research, joint projects with other government-funded institutes, and collaborative research with global technology companies.

To ensure research outcomes move beyond papers and patents, the institute will also strengthen R&D investment that integrates technology scale-up and startup creation.

"We need to reawaken ETRI's DNA — the same DNA that produced national achievements like TDX, DRAM and CDMA — in the age of AI," Park said. "Rather than getting caught up in short-term results or chasing project contracts, we will prepare in advance the technologies that South Korea will need 10 and 20 years from now."

nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com