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Extend the Nobel horizon to science

Published: 14 Oct. 2024, 20:04

Han Kang fever is sweeping the country after she was crowned with Korea’s first Nobel laureate title in literature. Her works have been sold out, and publishers are running printers 24 hours to meet the sizzling demand. Songs she recommended as a music fan are also going up the charts. The feat has raised pride in Korean literature at home and its fame abroad.

Han’s Nobel award is Korea’s second after the late president Kim Dae-jung won the Peace Prize in 2000. But the science category still remains untouchable for Koreans. Japan has produced 24 Nobel awardees in the sciences since the country’s first winner in physics in 1949. China boasts three. That’s not all. Korea also lags in artificial intelligence and machine learning that dictated this year’s winners in the science categories.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences mostly celebrates the basic sciences, their impact on humanity and advancements within the fields. Nobel prizes in the sciences represent competitiveness in the basic sciences and original technology. Korea boasts of its world-class infrastructure and investment in science. It came first in scientific infrastructure in this year’s IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook. According to Nature, the world’s leading science journal, Korea is second in the research and development (R&D) investment ratio against the GDP with 5.2 percent after Israel with 5.6 percent as of 2022. But in terms of the achievements of research, Korea merely stopped at 8th.

The science Nobel prizes have been beyond Korean reach owing largely to an unproductive research habitat and customs. According to the National Research Foundation of Korea, it took an average 31.4 years for a research work to attain a Nobel title. But the Korean environment does not allow such patience. Researchers must follow “lucrative” projects that can be applied for commercialization, as budgets do not fund lengthy experiments in the basic sciences. There’s insufficient toleration for the time accumulation needed to reach the highest standards. The bias towards medicine and medical schools by top brains and the lack of funding in science and technology R&D also make up the shortfall in meaningful research.

What’s imperative now is the support and environment for ingenious research in the basic science fields. The government must pledge uninterrupted funding in the basic sciences on top of tax and regulatory incentives. Companies, universities and labs also should be able to devote themselves to R&D to raise their competitiveness through an endless cycle of innovations. Researchers also demand better treatment. All-around efforts in piecemeal can move the country closer to the Nobel peak. A Nobel title in science also can be an attainable dream if all the stakeholders do their best.