Researchers who maliciously or habitually misuse national research funds will henceforth face up to 20 years of restrictions on participating in national R&D activities, effectively removing them from the research field. The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon) announced that the promulgation bill for the partial amendment to the 「National R&D Innovation Act」 containing these provisions was deliberated and approved at a Cabinet meeting on September 8.
 [코리안투데이] The amendment to the 「National R&D Innovation Act」 approved at a Cabinet meeting © 장형임 기자 |
The amended act passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on August 20 and will take effect in March 2027, six months after its promulgation. The amendment is intended to build a national R&D ecosystem grounded in trust and responsibility, by enhancing researchers’ autonomy and willingness to take on challenges while imposing commensurate accountability for research misconduct.
The most significant change is a substantial increase in the level of sanctions for research misconduct. The upper limit on the period of restriction from national R&D activities for research misconduct and related offenses will double from the current 10 years to 20 years. The ceiling on the additional sanction levy, imposed on the basis of government-supported R&D funds already disbursed, will also rise sharply from the existing five times to 30 times that amount. Accordingly, serious misconduct such as the embezzlement of student labor costs or the private diversion of research funds may result in participation restrictions of up to 20 years, along with an additional sanction levy amounting to 30 times the government-supported R&D funds.
However, the maximum level of sanctions will not be applied uniformly to all violations. Sanctions will be determined by comprehensively considering the severity of the grounds for the sanction, the intentionality of the violation and the number of violations, and the stage and degree of progress of the R&D project.
The basis for responding to misconduct involving criminal suspicion has also been clarified. A legal basis has been established so that when the head of a central administrative agency determines there are substantial grounds to believe that research misconduct involves criminal suspicion, they may file a complaint with the competent investigative agency or request an investigation. This is a measure to respond swiftly to serious misconduct.
Alongside strengthening accountability, the project evaluation system will also be reformed to promote challenging research. From the project selection stage, the ‘innovativeness of research goals’ will be adopted as a core evaluation factor, actively supporting researchers who set ambitious goals rather than safety-oriented projects. As a follow-up to the abolition of the outcome-focused grading system, interim and final evaluations will shift to qualitative assessments centered on ‘excellence of achievements’ and ‘the challenging research process’ to select outstanding projects and grant incentives.
In particular, a basis has been established so that not only ‘outstanding projects’ with significant academic and technological ripple effects, but also ‘outstanding challenge projects’ that generate exceptional knowledge through trial and error even without achieving their innovative goals, can lead to follow-up research. Projects with excellent processes or results may be supported by designating the relevant principal investigator or research institution without a separate open competition procedure.
The criteria for sanctions against projects with extremely poor research results will also be eased. Henceforth, sanctions will be imposed only when the conduct of research is seriously improper, such as violations of statutes, failure to fulfill agreement obligations, or research misconduct. This aims to allay concerns in the research field that sanctions could be imposed simply because research results fell short of expectations, and to support challenging research that does not fear failure.
This amendment is also directly connected to researchers’ lives. A structure is being established in which researchers who make sincere efforts can obtain opportunities for follow-up research even if they fail, while researchers who privately divert research funds effectively have to leave the research field. It is also an institutional mechanism to ensure that R&D funds, raised through taxpayers’ money, are used more transparently.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to gather field opinions by March 2027 in line with the act’s enforcement and to overhaul the 「Enforcement Decree of the National R&D Innovation Act」 and related regulations. Park In-kyu, Head of the Office of Science, Technology and Innovation, said, ‘Following the expansion of researchers’ autonomy in June — including the creation of the research innovation cost, the shift to a negative system for indirect costs, and the simplification of R&D forms — this amendment is intended to impose commensurate accountability for serious misconduct.’ He added, ‘We will further expand research autonomy so that researchers can take on challenges without fearing failure, and support sincere challenges and excellent research more boldly, thereby establishing an innovative research ecosystem grounded in trust and responsibility.’
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