[2020 National Audit] "Professor A Who Gave Up R&D and the Ministry of Science and ICT Turning a Blind Eye"

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] As a researcher in charge of national R&D moved to a managerial position in another ministry, the government has been criticized for overlooking the cancellation of the R&D they were originally responsible for, leading to lax management of R&D budgets.

On the 7th, Representative Junho Han (Goyang-eul, Democratic Party), a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee, pointed this out during the Ministry of Science and ICT's audit by citing the case of Professor A at a domestic university who gave up on R&D.

According to Representative Han, Professor A at a domestic university abandoned the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Disaster-type Animal Infectious Disease Response Core Technology Development' research and development (R&D) project and moved to the Ministry of Health and Welfare as the head of the Vaccine Commercialization Technology Development Project Group.

The R&D that Professor A was conducting under the Ministry of Science and ICT was research aimed at identifying the infection mechanisms of avian influenza (AI) or foot-and-mouth disease to enhance preemptive response capabilities to infectious diseases. It was scheduled to receive a budget of 1.25 billion KRW from October 2018 to December 2022. Professor A achieved 100% of the performance goals by the second year of the research and was expected to clarify the pathogenic mechanisms of AI and foot-and-mouth disease upon completion.

However, Professor A gave up the research after two and a half years. During the R&D, the Ministry of Health and Welfare applied for the 'Vaccine Commercialization Technology Development Project,' which plans to invest 200 billion KRW over ten years, and Professor A was appointed as the project group leader. In response, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation accepted Professor A's withdrawal from the research without any special sanctions.

Representative Han emphasized that this case falls under the reasons for restricting research participation according to the Framework Act on Science and Technology and does not constitute a justifiable reason for withdrawal from research under the Ministry of Science and ICT's 2020 Bio-Medical Technology Development Project implementation plan.

He criticized, "The multiple layers of sanctions such as the national R&D project sanction guidelines and project-specific implementation plans have become meaningless," adding, "It is a national loss that national R&D, which involves an enormous public fund exceeding 20 trillion KRW, is being conducted in a lax and unregulated manner." He continued, "There should be no distinction in the duration, scale, or importance of national R&D projects, and research leaders must carry out national R&D with responsibility," and said, "This is an unacceptable situation as many citizens suffer every year from AI and foot-and-mouth disease."