The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) is pursuing a functional reform to unify the similar and overlapping roles of its affiliated public institutions and to strengthen the linkages among them. The move is a follow-up to the government-wide ‘Plan to Promote Functional Reform of Public Institutions’ announced on September 3, and it focuses on raising both operational efficiency and professional expertise by consolidating scattered functions.
 [코리안투데이] A view of the Ministry of Science and ICT headquarters © 장형임 기자 |
The functional reform being pursued by the Ministry of Science and ICT spans a range of areas, from facility management to the data industry, science museum operations, research and development (R&D) support, and pension management. The common thread is to bring together institutions that have each handled similar tasks separately, thereby reducing the management burden and allowing each institution to concentrate on its core mission.
First, the efficiency of the Innopolis (Special Research and Development Zone) development program will be improved. Until now, INNOPOLIS FNS Co., Ltd. had operated as a subsidiary of the Innopolis Foundation, handling facility management and cleaning as well as security and reception duties. However, because similar functions were dispersed across several institutions, there were limits to improving operational efficiency. Accordingly, facility management and cleaning duties will be transferred to the Science and Technology Facilities Management Corporation, a subsidiary of government-funded research institutes, while security and reception duties will move to the Science and Technology Security Management Corporation. This is expected to relieve the Innopolis Foundation of the burden of managing subsidiaries, allowing it to focus on its own tasks such as region-led R&D and support for deep-tech start-ups.
In the data field, the Korea Data Agency (K-DATA) will be merged into the National Information Society Agency (NIA) as an affiliated body. The aim is to organically combine K-DATA’s roughly 30 years of accumulated capabilities in promoting the data industry and supporting data utilization and distribution with NIA’s data policy support functions, thereby strengthening the executive power of data policy amid the spread of artificial intelligence (AI). By maintaining existing industry expertise and field responsiveness while linking them to policy support, the demands of the data industry on the ground are expected to be reflected in policy, enabling more professional program support.
The regional science museum system will also change significantly. The plan calls for consolidating four independent corporations currently in operation — the Daegu National Science Museum, the Gwangju National Science Museum, the Busan National Science Museum, and the Gangwon National Specialized Science Museum — into a new ‘(tentatively named) National Science Museum Foundation.’ Until now, the four science museums have run exhibitions and educational programs separately, leading to redundant development of similar content and making it difficult for visitors in other regions to access outstanding content and collection materials. Operating as small corporations also made it hard to pursue large-scale projects such as major special exhibitions or cooperation with overseas science museums. After consolidation, the service framework will be upgraded through joint planning of exhibition content and shared use of collection materials, while the unique characteristics and strengths of each regional science museum will be preserved as much as possible. Once the integrated institution is launched, the public will be able to enjoy content of a uniformly high standard no matter which regional science museum they visit, and the museums will also be better positioned to expand large-scale exhibition and research infrastructure and to engage in exchanges with leading overseas science museums.
In the R&D support system, the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development will be merged, with the latter incorporated as an affiliated body of the Foundation. The goal is to strengthen the connection between research and commercialization by bringing together the Foundation, which supports basic and original R&D, and the Institute, which has expertise in technology commercialization. The integrated institution will identify excellent research outcomes and link them to technology transfer and commercialization, and by drawing on the Institute’s commercialization network to gauge public and private technology demand, it will plan research projects on that basis, thereby also enhancing the strategic focus of R&D.
Small institutions will be consolidated as well. The Special Post Office Pension Management Corporation, a body of 12 staff responsible for collecting contributions from and paying salaries to special post office employees, will be integrated by establishing a Special Post Office Pension Management Center within the Korea Post Office Facilities Management Corporation. This maintains the expertise of pension management work while unifying common organizational functions to achieve organizational efficiency.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to pursue the necessary legislative overhaul, including the enactment and revision of relevant laws for the consolidation, while continuing to communicate with related ministries, local governments, and labor unions on the principle of guaranteeing the succession of employment and the preservation of existing conditions for staff, and to fully take in views raised during the consolidation process. The Ministry also intends to carry out the establishment of detailed road maps and the revision of regulations without disruption.
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