President Lee Jae-Myung (C) poses for a photo with young scientists at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, South Korea, 05 February 2026. File. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Feb. 17 (Asia Today) — Lee Jae-myung’s administration is accelerating reforms to South Korea’s research and development system, shifting evaluation standards away from rigid success metrics and toward a model that treats failure as part of innovation.
The government, which recently approved a record-high R&D budget, plans to overhaul its evaluation framework within the year. Officials said the current four-tier grading system – which ranks projects based on performance and outcomes – will be replaced with a qualitative review that focuses primarily on whether researchers carried out their work in good faith.
Under the new system, the emphasis will move away from strict goal attainment and toward researcher diligence and effort. Authorities also plan to introduce a special research track tentatively called “Frontier R&D Challenging Limits,” designed for projects with both a high probability of failure and potentially high impact.
Speaking earlier this month at a forum with young scientists at the presidential office, Lee said the “assetization of failure” would be pursued as a core policy task.
“The R&D sector will proceed in a different direction than before,” he said, calling for a more flexible research culture.
Lee previously argued at a regional town hall meeting last year that success rates should no longer dominate R&D policy priorities, and later urged ministries to support more challenging projects.
A 2025 audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection found that many national R&D targets, including those tied to technology readiness levels, were set too low to be considered truly challenging. As a result, projects often achieved their stated goals but generated limited broader impact.
Alongside administrative reforms, lawmakers are also pushing legislative changes to make science policy more adaptable.
Rep. Lee Geon-tae of the Democratic Party of Korea has introduced a bill to amend the Framework Act on Science and Technology. The proposal would allow revisions to the government’s five-year national science and technology plan when changes in the research environment warrant adjustments. It would also permit corresponding changes to the mid- and long-term national R&D investment strategy.
Officials say the combined policy and legislative efforts aim to foster a research culture that rewards bold experimentation and tolerates setbacks, with the goal of producing globally competitive breakthroughs.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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