[
THE INVESTOR] The Korean government invested 18.87 trillion won (US$16.6 billion) for research and development in 2015, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
An analysis report released on July 25 showed that 54,433 projects were financed for 639 national R&D programs, a 7 percent increase from 2014.
The Science Ministry provided the largest fund of 6.5 trillion won followed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (3.4 trillion won), Defense Acquisition Program Administration (2.5 trillion won), Ministry of Education (1.6 trillion won) and Small and Medium Business Administration (1 trillion won). The five government bodies accounted for 79.4 percent of the budget.
The science and education ministries focused on basic research while the rest concentrated their funding on development.
State-funded research institutes received the most support at 7.8 trillion won (41.4 percent), followed by universities (4.3 trillion won) and small and medium-sized businesses (14.8 percent). The number of lead researchers rose 3.8 percent to 34,145, 85.8 percent of whom were male.
By Hwang You-mee (
glamazon@heraldcorp.com)