"We Take Responsibility Even If It Fails"... Ministry of Science and ICT Recruiting Five Full-Authority PMs for Challenge-driven R&D

Five fields including bio, materials, climate, and energy... Briefing session on the 24th, applications accepted until March 17

The government will directly select lead researchers who will take on the risk of failure to pursue world-first achievements. Through Program Managers (PMs) with full authority over the entire research process, it plans to fully launch high-risk, high-impact research and to institutionalize a research culture that accepts failure.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea announced that they will publicly recruit around five Program Managers to lead the second phase of the Challenge-driven R&D program. The recruitment period is three weeks, from February 24 to March 17.

Image to help readers understand the article. Provided by Pixabay

Program Managers will oversee the entire R&D process, from discovering and planning projects to managing implementation and achieving missions, and will be granted both managerial autonomy and corresponding responsibility. Unlike conventional R&D programs centered on steering committees, this structure allows Program Managers to make decisions quickly and flexibly.

The recruitment covers five fields: bio; materials; climate and energy; applications and convergence related to bio, materials, climate, and energy; and other science and technology fields. Approximately one person will be selected for each field, and if no suitable candidate is found through document and interview screening, a PM may not be appointed for that field.

On February 24 at 2:30 p.m., the Ministry of Science and ICT will hold a briefing session for researchers from industry, academia, and research institutes at the Courtyard by Marriott Seoul Namdaemun. Detailed recruitment guidelines and application forms are available on the National Research Foundation of Korea website.

International achievements in under two years... Effectiveness of the PM system becomes visible

The Challenge-driven R&D projects launched in 2024 have produced a series of international academic成果 in less than two years, demonstrating the effectiveness of the制度.

In the biohealth field, the "Datafication of Memory" project planned by Program Manager Park Eunsung led to a breakthrough by Professor Lee Sangwan’s research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which for the first time in the world identified the meta-learning capabilities of the human prefrontal cortex. The results were published in the international journal Nature Communications (IF 15.7). Experts assess that this has laid a core foundation for realizing artificial intelligence modeled on the human brain.

In the materials field, Professor Son Changhee’s research team at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) secured low-power, non-volatile magnetic memory device technology through next-generation semiconductor research based on "third magnetic materials," a project overseen by Program Manager Kim Dongho. The成果 were published consecutively in Nano Letters and Physical Review Letters. It is reported that the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is also preparing a technology exploration project on this research topic.

In the climate and energy field, Program Manager Choi Wonsun integrated mathematical science, atmospheric science, and computer science to promote research on extreme weather prediction. Professor Hong Youngjoon’s research team at Seoul National University developed an ultra-short-range precipitation forecasting artificial intelligence model that maintains high accuracy while requiring only about 5% of the computational load compared with existing methods, even under heavy rainfall of 80 mm or more per hour. This research is scheduled to be presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), one of the top international conferences in the field of artificial intelligence.

Yoon Kyung-sook, Director-General for Basic Research Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Centered on Program Managers, who are top-level experts in their respective fields, the Challenge-driven R&D program has produced tangible成果 and laid the foundation for a research culture that accepts failure," adding, "The second-phase Program Managers will be tasked with nationally important missions, including planning new research topics, managing projects, disseminating成果, and advancing the overall Challenge-driven R&D framework."

The government plans to use the selection of the second-phase Program Managers as an opportunity to制度上 support challenges that go one step beyond the current global best, and to strengthen a system that provides long-term support for high-risk research.