Deputy Minister Park Jae-moon of the Office of R&D Policy at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP).

"We make preparations for the future for the foundation of science technology, provide support for startup and commercialization using public technology and develop and spread technologies related to public daily life,” said Deputy Minister Park Jae-moon of the Office of R&D Policy at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP). 

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and Deputy Minister Park in which he spoke of science research and other policies. 

Question: Will you tell our readers about major tasks your office will implement this year?

Answer: Amid mounting fears over Korea’s low growth, caused by the nation’s higher dependence on foreign-made original technologies and a recent drop in growth potential, public demand is mounting for enhancing such values as happiness, quality of life and co-existence. 

True to the 2015 catchphrase “Science Technology Dreaming a Happy World,” set by the Office of R&D Policy, we make preparations for the future for the foundation of science technology, provide support for startup and commercialization using public technology and develop and spread technologies related to public daily life. 

Making preparations for the future for the foundation of science technology

The government concentrates investments in accordance with strategies to provide support for the development and industrialization of core original technologies the MSIP has drawn up in cooperation with related ministries to nurture such industries as bio, climate change response and nano that will emerge as breadwinners in the future. 

It backs up the building of space development infrastructure with our own technology, the securing of sustainability of the Korean nuclear power industry, exporting of technologies abroad and industrialization by continuing to invest in such strategic areas as space and nuclear power.

We’re aggressively making preparations for a new future by ramping up such “X-Project” as creative and innovative basic research and planning R&D programs tailored to explore promising future technologies.  

Support for startup and commercialization using public technology

We implement the Korean “I-corps” pilot project to support the launching of startups with R&D outcomes, while strengthening financial and consulting support to research and technology companies to boost the growth of existing startups. We have also expanded support to industry circles by inaugurating a center in July in which some 40 state-invested research institutes and universities provide one-stop services to help SMEs and mid-size superstars cope with technology glitches. 

MSIP Deputy Minister Park gives a briefing on Korea’s exporting of the SMART technology to Saudi Arabia on Sept. 2.(Photos:MSIP)

Developing and spreading of technologies related to public daily life

We have civic research projects in place to expand the general public’s participation in such areas as daily life environment, disaster/safety, and disparity solution from technology development planning to experimentation. The tentatively named “public life research teams” will be inaugurated next year to turn to research on things people feel, experience and want, differing from the conventional basic/original research.

Q: Will you elaborate on major policies and projects in the basic research field?

A: Basic research refers to research activities tailored to acquire new knowledge without specific purposes and cultivate creative manpower. The government offers systematic support to basic research and expands the portion of investments into basic research in accordance with the Science Technology Basic Act. 

We implement projects to support researchers’ own research activities and other programs to support research groups. To this end, the government has set aside 1.08 trillion won for basic research some 744 billion won from the MSIP and the remaining 336 billion won from the Ministry of Education. 

The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) specializes in exploring and nurturing top-class researchers in Korea and abroad. By 2021, the IBS aims at cultivating 50 basic science research groups and attracting 500 leading researchers in the global top 1 percent category, and being a global basic science research hub by constructing and operating a heavy ion accelerator. The goal of IBS is to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to train the leading scientists of tomorrow.

Q: Will you introduce major policies and projects to cope with climate change?

A: The government has been working on climate change response technology R&D projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prove climate change scientifically since 2008. In particular, we began to splurge on top six core technologies related to climate change responses — solar batteries, fuel cells, bio cells, secondary batteries, power IT (information technology), and carbon capture storage (CCS). This strategy calls for classifying a “maturing market,” an “emerging market” and a “future new market,” depending on technology areas to solve the pending issues companies and researchers face, clarifying the government and the private sectors’ roles. We focus on efficient harmonizing R&D projects and policies among related ministries and institutions. Some 200 companies participate in a consultative body to link demand-based R&D and commercialization, while large- and small-sized companies collaborate on a voluntary basis through Centers for Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEI).

Korea is now working on the development of technologies to reuse CO2 from industrial resources beyond the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite Korea’s industrial structure, which depends on petroleum for most energy sources, carbon to resources technologies are expected to maximize added values and create new industries. 

Q: Will you specify major policies and projects to nurture the biotechnology industry?

A: Our ministry now implements a future plan to nurture bio and health into new industries it has established this year. The plan the MSIP has established in cooperation with related government ministries calls for creating the bio and health industries into national growth engines in 2020 or after. A focus is on nurturing such areas as biomedicines, including stem cell treatment drugs, and promising medical devices, including convergence medical gadgets with the goal of commanding the emerging global markets ahead of others. 

Under previous governments, each ministry had established its respective plan with a focus on related industry fields without clearly linking R&D with industrialization. The bio/health plan under the current government focuses on such strategic items as stem cell/gene therapy drugs and convergence medical devices, and offers a package of support ranging from R&D to clinical testing, manpower and exporting. It involves connectivity among strategy, budget and commercialization from a stage of planning to enhance the implementation of strategies. 

Under the current plan, the MSIP, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and other related government agencies, have collaborated in exploring tasks, setting outcome targets, and working out joint projects in vacant areas. Working-level inspection will be made on a quarterly basis to take stock of implementation, and related ministries will jointly look at the implementation of policies on a half-year basis and supplement it.

Q: Will you touch on major policies and projects to develop space technologies?

A: Korea has been developing Korea’s own three-stage space launch vehicle to put a 1.5 ton-class application satellite into a 600-800km low-earth Orbit. The first phase project, which ended this past July, has confirmed the success of a 7-ton thrust engine. The upcoming second stage project will develop a 75-ton thrust engine, to be installed into Korea’s own space launch vehicle, which will be test-fired by the end of 2017. Finally, the nation plans to secure its own space launch vehicle technology by officially launching a rocket.

Korea plans to launch its first own project to explore the moon next year. The nation will secure moon exploration technologies by developing and launching a robotic orbiter around the moon by 2018 through international cooperation. Korea plans to develop and launch a moon orbiter and a moon lander on its technology by 2020, based on technology performance. Putting a moon explorer into a space some 380,000 km from the earth, unlike a satellite circling the earth, requires advanced communications and control technologies, so Korea is to establish a closely-cooperative regime with the United States. 

Recognizing the importance of the space industry, the government is shifting the space development paradigm to focus on the private sector. The next-generation mid-size satellite project, being launched this year, allows the private sector (Korea Aerospace Industries) to take an initiative. The private sector’s participation in such state-invested R&D projects as multi-purpose satellites projects has been increasing gradually.  

Q: Will you give details on major policies and project to nurture the nuclear power industry?

A: Korea and Saudi Arabia are implementing a pre-project engineering program prior to the construction of Korean-designed SMART (System-integrated Modular Advanced Reactor) reactors in the Middle Eastern country. The implementation of the project follows the signing of an MOU between the two countries on the SMART partnership, made during President Park Geun-hye’s visit to Riyadh this past March. Saudi Arabia, which has decided to introduce SMART reactors, is now focusing on nurturing related manpower, so chances are high that Korea may export the SMART reactor technology to Saudi Arabia after the completion of the PPE project. 

In accordance with a plan to develop a nuclear system of the future, established in December 2008, Korea is developing a G4 sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) in connection with Pro process of processing and recycling of spent fuel.

The government decided to permanently halt the operation of Kori Nuclear Power Unit No. 1, Korea’s first unit, this past June and the time of decommissioning the world’s nuclear units built between the 1960s and 1980s is approaching. Korea is seeking to secure decommissioning technologies equivalent to those of advanced countries and build a research center on decommissioning of nuclear units to cope with the demand for decommissioning of nuclear units. The nation is developing its own decommission infrastructure technology according to a plan established in 2012.