What will it take to get South Korea’s research to the world?

SGA integration in South Korea: a key challenge for early career scientists, as evidenced by Horizon Europe and highlighted by the COVID-19 Nature Index

The increasing complexity of study designs makes SGA integration a challenge for scientists in South Korea, especially early career researchers, who are not typically taught the practice. The need for training to encourage more researchers to consider the sex-disaggregated data, animals, cells and other materials that have been collected and analysed separately for male, female, and non-binary participants complicates matters. As the South Korean government ramps up funding and support for international collaboration, its researchers will need to get up to speed on SGA integration. Horizon Europe, the European Union’s flagship research-funding programme that South Korea joined in March, mandates SGA integration in the research it funds, for example.

South Korean science is very dependent on improvements being made to the integration rates. This will not only elevate the quality of its outputs, but could help to solidify South Korea’s role in developing equitable and impactful solutions to the world’s most urgent societal challenges.

As a final requirement, it is important that indicators of integration in research outputs are being developed at a global level. This approach would encourage the use of a tool that is needed.

One surprising finding discussed in the Nature Index is that South Korea is not in the top tier of places where researchers easily switch between academia and industry. Researchers in Italy and the United States have more cross-sector mobility, for example. This wasn’t always the case in South Korea, however, and the COVID-19 pandemic might have played a part in weakening links between universities and industry.

The amount of funding available to them is equally important as the number of PIs. In South Korean universities, the average amount of government funding won by male PIs in science and technology areas is 165 million won (US$119,393). The figure is 67 million won for women.

The Korean campus of the Center for Quantum Nanoscience and the 21-year R&D budget cuts in Korea: an overview from the director of operations

At the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS), nestled in the hilly campus of Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, director of operations, Michelle Randall, shows off the facilities. “This is where we isolate our scanning tunnelling microscopes (STM) from any vibrations,” she says, pointing to an 80-tonne concrete damper, a mechanism that reduces interfering movements to near zero. Researchers at QNS are using STMs to image and manipulate individual atoms and molecules, chasing breakthroughs akin to last year’s assembly of a device made from single atoms that allows multiple qubits — the fundamental units of quantum information — to be controlled simultaneously (Y. Wang et al. Science 383, 833, and 833-9 are all part of the science. The work, done by QNS in collaboration with colleagues in Japan, Spain and the United States, could have applications in quantum computing, sensing and communication.

What gives QNS its edge, says Randall, is the diversity of teams that populate its labs. “Our composition is 50:50, South Korean and international, and we are an English-speaking workplace as a result,” she says. There is a room with four women, two of which are South Koreans, one of which is French and one of which is an Iranian.

Changes could come next year, as South Korea continues to adjust its spending in science. In June, the government proposed a record 24.8 trillion won for R&D focused on basic and applied scientific research in 2025, which is up from 2024’s 21.9 trillion won, although further details were not available at the time of writing.

“It seems that the term ‘budget cut’ really means redistributing money to more applied projects and international research initiatives,” says computational biologist, Martin Steinegger, based at Seoul National University. Steinegger experienced a 15–25% reduction in existing grants, paid annually from the National Research Foundation of Korea, the country’s main funding agency. This forced him to reduce conference travel for his students and use older hardware for research. “I have effectively less money than I did last year, but I can apply to many new things, it seems,” says Steinegger.

The number of natural-sciences articles in the Nature Index that have been co-authored by China- and South Korea-based researchers has grown considerably in recent years, up 222% between 2015 and 2023, compared with US–South Korean output, which dropped by 4% over the same period. Collaborations with China are getting more difficult, according to researchers in South Korea. A number of industrial technology leaks have taken place in China, according to data from South Korea’s national police agency. The oversight of collaborations with China is more stringent than with other partners. “Researchers occasionally receive requests from their institutions or the government asking who is collaborating with China, says Cha. “They are aware that any collaboration may be monitored, creating a sense of censorship.”

“If the barriers are lowered and support is provided for overseas researchers to utilize South Korea’s leading research facilities and equipment, I think South Korea will become an attractive country for conducting research activities,” says Lee.

Cha highlights that southeast Asia is a place where South Korea has always had interest in, as well as potential for joint innovation projects. “For instance, in Indonesia, there’s no governmental institution in charge of AI,” she says, which could open up the possibility of future collaborations around ethical and strategic development of AI technologies.

It could be easier for universities to attract overseas talent because of recent updates to visa rules. The Korean Ministry of Justice, which is in charge of immigration, greatly increased the number of universities that can enroll foreign postgraduate students on D-5-5 research study visas and waives three years of work experience requirements for international master’s and PhD holders.

Religious and cultural differences also pose difficulties. Muaz Razaq, a student, who left Pakistan to pursue his PhD in computer science at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, is involved in a small mosque-reconstruction project next to his university that has ignited strong opposition from segments of the local community. Razaq says he’s heard many stories from other Muslim students across South Korea who describe being taunted by their peers over food choices and who lack designated spaces for practices such as ablution before prayers.

The Seoul Institute of Public Administration: An innovative research institute to attract international researchers in a global city: How Koreans view and understand South Korea’s research environment

It is hoped that the Brain Pool programme, which gives a three year scholarship to a PhD researcher, and Brain Pool Plus, which gives a ten year scholarship to a PHD researcher, are both government-funded initiatives. MSIT also plans to introduce support programmes to help new arrivals settle in and build networks.

Seoul Robotics, a company that develops AI-powered software for autonomous driving and traffic management, has mandated an English-speaking work environment to attract international talent. Such a culture is unusual in South Korea; although many companies have English-speaking requirements, these are often not enforced, says Evan Thomas, business development manager at Seoul Robotics. The ability to communicate in English without constant translation has been a significant advantage for the company.

Cultural attitudes towards foreigners can also hinder long-term retention, says Thomas. “Many South Koreans view foreigners as temporary visitors rather than potential long-term residents, discouraging them from settling in,” he says. A 2023 survey by the Korea Institute of Public Administration, a government-sponsored research institute in Seoul, seems to back this up, reporting that less than half of the respondents say they accept foreign nationals as members of South Korean society.

After graduating her PhD at QNS, Hong said she was accepted to a position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich as a research associate. One of the main reasons for wanting to leave QNS would be the limited permanent career opportunites available to international researchers in Seoul. “South Korean companies often value overseas experience more than domestic experience, and many workplaces require Korean language proficiency,” she says.

South Korea is seen as a great place to live in by the world. Its spending on research and development (R&D) is among the highest of all nations at almost 5% of gross domestic product, according to 2021 data. The automotive and technology giants Hyundai, Kia, LG and Samsung are household names. South Korea had more researchers per million people in 2021, than any other nation. And the country is home to at least one global cultural movement, K-pop.

South Korea is the world’s lowest birth rate, with only 0.72 births per woman in 2023, because of its declining birth rate. There will be a decline in prospective student numbers. The number of people who will be eligible to go to university in 2020 will be less than 280,000 in 2040.

Out of 195 universities, 51 have failed to meet targets this year, according to an analysis of higher education data by the Jongro Academy. These have been dubbed ‘zombie universities’ by the national media for their low student numbers. It would be severe for industry and academia if under-enrolment continued.

Connecting researchers and start-ups to increase cross-sector mobility: a report of the Advisory Committee on Innovation and Innovation in Co-operation

The policymakers are looking at ways to increase cross-sector mobility. The report of the government’s advisory committee, for example, proposed formally linking researchers and start-up companies, so they can solve technical challenges together.