The Ministry of Science and ICT has selected 2,496 projects (150.2 billion won) as the second round of new tasks under its 2026 Individual Basic Research Program and will begin funding them on September 1. At the heart of this round is the restoration and expansion of Basic Research, which had been abolished in 2024, with a focus on lowering the entry barrier for early-career researchers just starting out and strengthening the research safety net.
 [코리안투데이] A view of the Ministry of Science and ICT headquarters © 장형임 기자 |
The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) announced on the 25th that, following the public call and evaluation for the second round of new tasks under the 2026 Individual Basic Research Program, it has selected 2,496 projects (150.2 billion won) — including Basic Research, Challenge-type Research, and Strategy-type Research — for funding beginning September 1.
Basic Research accounted for the largest share of this second-round selection, making up the vast majority with 2,366 projects. By category, Type B, which provides 70 million won per year, covered 1,460 projects (92.2 billion won), while Type A, providing 50 million won per year, covered 906 projects (39.9 billion won). Both types support full-time faculty in science and engineering fields and researchers at private research institutes for periods of one to five years.
Basic Research is a program that provides small-scale, long-term funding to researchers across diverse fields — such as newly appointed faculty and researchers based in regional areas — thereby broadening the foundation of the basic research ecosystem. Abolished in 2024, it was restored this year on an expanded scale. Compared with 2023, before its abolition, the average funding per project rose about 10 percent to 55.86 million won (from 50.91 million won in 2023), and the support period was extended from a previous maximum of three years to five years. This means early-career researchers who need to establish themselves on stable footing can now pursue their work over a longer horizon, free from the pressure to produce quick results.
Actual cases of selected projects illustrate the program’s intent well. Professor Woo Sook-young of the Division of AI Software at Daejeon University joined Daejeon University this year after graduating from Sogang University and working at the Samsung Biomedical Research Institute and Samsung Medical Center, and she began her research project upon appointment. Professor Woo’s project aims to develop a methodology for determining optimal cut-off values that reflects nonlinear risk structures in competing-risk survival data. By combining the predictive performance of deep learning with statistical interpretability, it is expected to strengthen the scientific basis for personalized medical decision-making.
Along with broadening the base of basic research, the Ministry of Science and ICT also selected two additional task types aimed at enhancing innovativeness and strategic value. Challenge-type Research is research aimed at discovering and establishing new concepts, providing 100 million won per year for one to three years to both full-time and non-full-time faculty in science and engineering fields. This round selected 50 projects (4.7 billion won). For the challenge type, an initial screening was conducted based on a preliminary proposal reflecting the originality and innovativeness of the research theme, followed by the main evaluation. An exception to the ‘one researcher, one project’ principle for individual research was applied so that the work could be carried out in connection with existing or future projects. In keeping with the spirit of challenging research, failures in research will be managed flexibly going forward.
Among the challenge-type cases is a project by Professor Kim Jae-taek of the College of Medicine at Chung-Ang University. Professor Kim is conducting research that, for the first time in the world, seeks to elucidate the metabolic landscape and substrate dependency of the sinoatrial node, which regulates the heartbeat. It is an attempt to explain the heartbeat — discussed over the past century primarily in terms of ion channels — through the new conceptual framework of ‘substrate dependency’ and ‘mitochondrial metabolic landscape,’ and it is expected to lower the technical barriers to metabolic research on minute tissues.
Strategy-type Research supports basic research that responds to national and social needs, such as national strategic technologies and promising future fields. It provides 200 million won per year for one to three years to faculty in science and engineering fields and researchers at national, public, and government-funded research institutes. Designating nationally needed fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, robotics, genes, and infectious diseases, the ministry selected 80 projects (15.2 billion won). Professor Lee Jong-min of the Department of Advanced Computing at Yonsei University is researching foundational source technology for general-purpose decision-making AI policy learning that can adapt instantly without large-scale retraining. By reducing dependence on data quality while enabling stable decision-making, it is expected to help lower the technical and economic barriers to adopting AI in actual industrial settings.
Kim Sung-soo, Director-General for R&D Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, ‘Diversity in basic research is the beginning of pioneering new research fields and expanding convergence research,’ adding, ‘We will continue our support to broaden diversity by expanding opportunities for early-career researchers to enter and grow, while at the same time further strengthening the challenge and innovation of basic research.’
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