Time to produce world-class scientists

Oh Sang-rok
The author is the president of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

South Koreans feel pride to claim Son Heung-min, a world-class football player in English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. The world-class title is bestowed to a player not just for the numbers in a paycheck and a goal scorecard, but for his positive inputs to the team club and national league. The accolade comes with the highest dignity and honor and the person who receives it is remembered as a legend.

The Korean science and technology community has set a goal to move ahead into the forerunner group after decades of chasing. Attempts to win accreditation as the world’s first and best as well as system upgrades to back the efforts have been perpetuated. The various attributes — innovation, convergence and focus on the mission — to research projects imply the keenness behind the enterprise. There had been some meaningful outputs as the world’s first independent developments. Yet Korea’s science and technology receives calls for self-reflection and innovation instead of a world-class salutation.

On paper, Korea’s science and technology standards have achieved remarkable advances. The capacity, infrastructure and systems of researchers have all been elevated. In spite of the visible advances, however, the passion and intensity of researchers have sharply waned. The diminished public interest in the rank and achievements of Korean researchers are the evident results of this. Under competitive scrutiny and evaluation — and rewards strictly based on performance results — researchers have turned complacent to try to meet the goals within the deadline instead of committing themselves to challenging and breakthrough research.

Curiosity toward new discoveries and ingenious ideas constitute the essence of research. A researcher’s work demands not just the brain but instincts. An exciting discovery that can change humanity’s future can be born through the marriage of inner motivations like pride and commitment and externalities such as sovereignty and reward for the work. Homo sapiens had become the surviving species on this planet through their ingenious employment of surviving tools in harsh environments. That idiosyncratic DNA must be revived to awaken our research instincts.

Through the rise of generative artificial intelligence in the likes of ChatGPT and innovations like quantum computing and advanced microchips that can destruct existing economic and security orders, science and technology has become the key to national survival and competitiveness. Research should not be driven by reason under scrupulous evaluation and supervision, but by instinctive dynamism.

The national research and development foundation must be redesigned to arouse the deadened passion of researchers. It does not require glamorous and complicate solutions, but a return to the basics. A task should be given to a researcher that can excite his or her pride and commitment, and researchers must be granted autonomous and responsible room to find the best possible solution on their own.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an iconic hotbed for breakthrough R&Ds, can be benchmarked. The U.S. government institution does not have laboratories or scientists of its own, nor uses any kind of peer review for assessing the viability of a project. Instead, it employs “program managers” to find and fund university and business projects that cannot be easily taken up by others due to their riskiness. The program managers are responsible from the planning stage to the commercial application stage. Korea has proven its technological potentials, having achieved independent supremacy in memory chip and secondary battery technologies.

The incumbent government has added traction to the R&D drive by exempting the preliminary feasibility study and sponsoring collaborative projects with global partners. If sovereignty in research and researchers’ persistent zeal are combined, we can produce Korean pioneers who can discover an uncharted path in the science and technology field.

Much of the setbacks have been removed as the government has secured its record R&D budget for the next year. The ball is now in the court of the research community. Scientists must capitalize on government incentives to incorporate an enterprising and innovative culture and pursue outcomes that can meet public demand. Korean names from the sports, entertainment, arts and corporate sectors have joined the world-class rank. It’s our scientists’ turn.

We hope our younger generation scientists can win admiration and praise for solving global issues through their breakthrough work.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.