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Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524

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Government Information Quarterly


j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / g ov i n f

The present status and analysis of Science & Technology Information (STI) service
policy in Korea
Centered on Representative National STI Institute
Lee Yun-Seok , Kim jae-sung
Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), Eoeun-dong 52-11, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-806, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Available online 5 May 2009


Keywords:
Science & Technology Information (STI)
Infrastructure
Resource
Policy

a b s t r a c t
National Science & Technology Information (STI) infrastructure of Korea has been independently developed
as a decentralized system within the government ministry. In order to effectively establish the national STI
infrastructure, it is essential to create a networked and integrated system in the domestic and foreign
information infrastructure. This study aims to analyze current national STI infrastructure and to suggest
specic ways in which domestic and foreign STI infrastructure may be utilized.
2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Science & Technology (S&T) is generally recognized as one of the
most important components of national competitiveness. To
promote and support Science & Technology development more
effectively, Science & Technology Information (STI) infrastructure is
considered a core resource in national S&T competitiveness. Most
developed countries have recognized the importance of STI infrastructure at an early stage, expending their energy to build a
national STI infrastructure more efciently. During the 1989's
1999's, the international community did not pay much attention to
S&T and STI of Korea. Many western observers considered the STI
system of Korea to be similar to that of Japan's. But the
competitiveness of Korea in S&T has been improved continuously,
ranked 12th in national scientic competitiveness and 6th in
technological competitiveness according to the IMD report (2006).
Korea has continuously strived to develop a new and innovative STI
model; differentiating its model from the models of Japan and
western countries. In particular, Korean national STI infrastructure
has been developed with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Over the past 20 years, Korea has continuously
dedicated itself to the promotion of informatization by stimulating
IT industries, implementing e-Government systems, and building
IT infrastructures. As a result, Korea has one of the best IT
infrastructures in the world. During the transition into the new
millennium, Korea's IT level reached a point where its IT utilization
drew worldwide attention and the growth rate of the IT industry

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lyseok@kisti.re.kr (L. Yun-Seok).
0740-624X/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.giq.2008.11.010

augmented to thrice that of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)


growth rate.
Notably, with the development of ICTs, changes took place in S&T
domain and, as a result, the R&D paradigm has shifted to an ICT based
pattern. Due to the rapid changes in IT environment surrounding R&D,
the functional role of STI infrastructure had to evolve in parallel with
such ICT environmental changes. Therefore, the policies of STI had to
move along with the changes in the IT environment.
Until the 1999's, national Science & Technology Information (STI)
infrastructure of Korea was developed with an independent and
decentralized system, built and operated by government-sponsored
public institutes. At the beginning of 2000, Korea tried to integrate and
to combine all decentralized STI infrastructures to establish a national,
comprehensive STI infrastructure in order to cope with the competitive IT infrastructure. Main policies pertaining to building Korea's STI
infrastructure were executed mainly by government-sponsored
institutes, relevant to S&T related ministries. The STI policies, driven
primarily by the government, have been playing signicant roles in
developing Korea's S&T competitiveness, industry, and economy
development.
2. Study objectives
The Korean government has been consistently developing a new
STI infrastructure suitable for Korean S&T and IT environment. One
of the main purposes of this paper is to introduce the STI system of
Korea that is shadowed behind the international focus in the S&T
related community around the globe. This paper (1) explains the
experience of national STI development system of Korea, (2)
investigates and analyzes the current status of STI system different
from that of Japan and western countries, and (3) briey suggests

L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524


Table 1
Ranking of main items of scientic competitiveness (IMD, 2006).

517

Table 2
Status of total R&D expenditure in major countries.

Item of scientic competitiveness

Index

Rank

Total expenditure on R&D (US$ millions), 2004


Total expenditure on R&D (Percentage of GDP), 2004
Total expenditure on R&D per capita (US$), 2004
Business expenditure on R&D (US$ millions), 2004
Total R&D personnel nationwide(FTE, 1000 people), 2004
% of total rst university degrees in science & engineering(2002)1
Scientic articles published by origin of author(2003)2
Number of patents granted to residents(average 20022004)3
Number of patents secured abroad by country residents4

19,376
2.85
402.97
14,864
194.06
47.16
13,746
31,915
8,673

7
8
23
6
6
7
12
3
6

FTE: Full-time work equivalent.


1, 2 Sources: NSF, Science & Technology Indicator 2006.
3, 4 Sources: World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO Statistics Database.

specic issues of Korea's STI system for a next generation STI


model.
3. Overview of Korean S&T policy
The development of S&T was established in conjunction with the
Five-Year Economic Development Plan initiative in 1962. The establishment of S&T capabilities emerged as one of the most important
tasks of government policies. S&T in Korea has been developed to
effectively support each of the three phases of the rapid economic
growth that has occurred over the past 40 years.
Phase of imitation (1960s1970s): learning and imitating
advanced technologies. It was in the early 1960s that the First
Five-Year Economic Development Plan was launched. S&T
policies were geared towards the development of S&T infrastructures, such as a technical training system and legalorganizational framework for S&T development. The Ministry of
Science and Technology (MOST) was established in 1967 as the
central government agency for S&T development, and the
Science and Technology Promotion Law was enacted in 1967 as
the legal framework for S&T development.
Phase of internalization and innovation (1980s1990s): active
adaptation and enhancement of advanced technologies and
creative enhancement in S&T. Industrial policies during the 1980s
sought to ensure further growth and stabilization. The priority of
S&T policy was placed on building an indigenous R&D capability,
which was required not only for developing technology-intensive
industries but also for improving manufacturing operation
productivity.
Phase of mature innovation (2000s): creation of world-class
knowledge and technologies. To this end, efforts continued to
secure high-level scientists and engineers through the reinforcement of graduate education, expansion of overseas training
programs, and repatriation of scientists and engineers from

Country

R&D expenditure
(million US$)

R&D expenditure
based on the
Fig. 1 of Korea

Ratio to
GDP (%)

R&D expenditure
per one person
(US$)

Korea (2005)
U.S.A (2004)
Japan (2004)
Germany (2004)
France (2004)
U.K (2003)
Finland (2004)
China (2004)

23,582.1
312,535.4
145,875.8
68,412.2
44,263.3
34,029.3
6523.0
23,757.1

1
13.3
6.2
2.9
1.9
1.4
0.3
1.0

2.99
2.68
3.13
2.49
2.16
1.88
3.51
1.23

488.3
1063.2
1124.4
829.3
711.9
571.4
1247.9
18.2

Source: OECD, Science and Technology Indicators, June 2006.

abroad. The 21st century will become an era of a myriad of


changes and challenges for Korea.
The new political landscape and economic environments
domestic as well as international presented various new problems
for Korea, which had yet to make the critical transition to fully join the
ranks of the advanced economies. Recognizing that science and
technology are the keys to a nation's advancement, the Korean
government has continuously placed special emphasis on developing
stronger scientic and technological capabilities.
4. National status of Korean science and technology
The Korean government has been placing signicant emphasis on
S&T for its successful transformation into a knowledge-based nation.
The institutional framework has been laid down through the
enactment of the STFL (Science and Technology Framework Law)
and the establishment of the NSTC (National Science and Technology
Council), the MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology) and the MIC
(Ministry of Information and Communication), which is in charge of
national development strategy tasks such as strengthening the
competitive power of Korea's IT industry and nurturing information
and telecommunication businesses. Electronic government has been
implemented and e-commerce is expanding, leveraging on Korea's
world-class information technology infrastructure.
In 2008, the Korean government system was reorganized under
the new administration, which, in aiming at becoming a small and
effective government, focused on minimizing regulations, control, and
other activities by leaving much to the market. For example, the new
ministry, Ministry of Knowledge-Based Economy, was formed
through the merger of related ministries: the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry, and Energy; parts of the Ministry of Information and
Communication; and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
In addition, the basic science research work of the Ministry of
Education & Human Resources and the Ministry of Science &
Technology was unied into the Ministry of Education & Science.

Fig. 1. Trend of R&D expenditure and the ratio of R&D to GDP. Unit: Hundred million Korean Won, %. Source: MEST (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, http://www.
mest.go.kr).

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L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524

Table 3
Trend of R&D expenditure by source of funds.

Total
Government and public
(Growth rate)
Private
(Growth rate)
Foreign
Government : Private

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

138,485
38,169
6.8
100,234
20.2
82
28:72

161,105
43,615
14.3
116,733
16.5
757
27:73

173,251
47,400
8.7
125,088
7.2
763
27:73

190,687
48,762
2.9
141,136
12.8
789
26:74

221,853
54,460
11.7
166,309
17.8
1084
25:75

241,554
58,772
7.9
181,068
8.9
1714
24:76

Unit: Hundred million Korean Won, %.


Source: MEST (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, http://www.mest.go.kr).

However, the MB Lee administration plans to signicantly increase its


commitment to R&D (investing 5% of the GDP in the next ve years) in
a pledge to become one of the world's leading technology leaders.
As Korea took top-ranking positions in various indices, which
indicate a country's capability to create and use knowledge, Korea's
status in S&T has improved; Korea is ranked 12th and 6th in scientic
and technological competitiveness, among countries with a population of over 20 million (IMD). The rankings for scientic competitiveness include: U.S.A 1st, Japan 2nd, Sweden 3rd, Germany 4th,
Taiwan 5th, and Korea 12th. The rankings for technological competitiveness include: U.S.A 1st, Hong Kong 2nd, Singapore 3rd, Taiwan 4th,
Israel 5th, and Korea 6th (Table 1).
4.1. Status and trend of total R&D expenditure and personnel
Korea's R&D investment has increased by 37 times over the past
23 years. R&D investment, which stood at around $428 million in 1980
(0.77% of GDP), reached $16 billion in 2003 (2.64% of GDP). In response
to an increasing demand, government R&D budget has been augmented continuously. R&D budget: $27.6 million (1971), $1083 million
(1991), $4935 million (2004). Percentage of R&D budget in total
government budget: 1.9% (1971) 3.0% (1991) 4.8%(2004). The
2006 Research and development (R&D) activities survey, which was
carried out in the eld of Science and Technology, determined that the
number of private companies, universities, and colleges totaled 11,117.
According to the survey outcome, the total R&D expenditure in the
eld of science and technology (natural sciences, engineering,
agriculture, animal husbandry, sheries, medicine, pharmacy, etc.)
for the year 2005 was at 24,155.4 billion Korean Won, showing an
increase of 8.9% from the 22,185.3 billion Korean Won of the previous
year. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP is 2.99%, which is an
increase of 0.14% compared to the previous year. As shown in Fig. 1, the
trend in R&D expenditure has constantly increased except for the
steep decrease in 1998 due to IMF crisis. As shown in Table 2, the R&D
expenditure in Korea is 1/13th that of U.S.A, 1/6th that of Japan, 1/3rd
that of Germany, but the ratio of R&D to GDP shows 2.99%, which is
higher than the ratio for major countries (the average of R&D
expenditure of OECD countries is 2.26%).
The total R&D expenditure of 24,155.4 billion Korean won in 2005
consists of 24.3% (5877.2 billion won) with the government and public

sector provided funds, 75.0% (18,106.8 billion won) from the private
sector, and 0.7% (171.4 billion won) from the foreign sector. The
government and public sector funds as a source of R&D expenditure
increased by 7.9% over the previous year, and funds from the private
sector (including funds from abroad) were up by 9.2% over the
previous year.
As a result, the ratio between funding from private and government sectors increased from 25:75 to 24:76. As shown in Table 3, the
share ratio in Government source of total R&D in advanced countries
was higher than that of Korea. The ratio of foreign source of funds in
Korea was 0.7% which is much smaller than that of France (8.4%) and
the U.K. (19.4%).
In the year 2005, a total of 335,428 people in Korea were engaged in
R&D activities (researchers, research assistants, and other support
personnel), which represents a 7.4% increase from the previous year.
Among the total research personnel, the number of researchers was
234,702, which shows an 11.8% rise from the previous year. Accordingly,
the number of researchers is 7.5 persons per 1000 employments. On the
other hand, the number of FTE (Full Time Equivalent) researchers was
179,812, a 15.1% increase from the previous year (Fig. 2).
5. STI policy and service in Korea
5.1. History of STI policy
In the past decade, Korea's S&T was developed and grown at a
rapid pace. With the S&T developments, the demand for STI
infrastructure has increased in both private and public sectors. The
S&T information policy in Korea was launched with the establishment
of KORSTIC (Korea S&T Information Center) at an early stage of
economic development in 1962. Over the decades, KORSTIC played a
central role in disseminating national S&T information. In 1982, the
government reorganized the KORSTIC and put it under the control of
the Ministry of Industry and Trade by merging it with KIEI (Korea
International Economic Institute), and founded KIET (Korea Institute
for Industrial Economics & Trade). As a result of the merger, the
national S&T information dissemination system became further
weakened and was not revived during the 1980s.
In 1991, KINITI (Korea Institute of Industry & Technology Information) was separated from KIET, succeeding to KORSTIC. In the mean
time, the Ministry of Science and Technology established KORDIC
(Korea R&D Information Center) in 1993. Successively, KERIS (Korea
Education & Research Information Service) and KIPRIS (Korea
Institute of Patent Right Information) were founded by the distinct
ministries in 1996 and 1998, respectively. In the 1990s, along with the
rapid development of ICT and the advent of the Internet, Korea
entered into a new era that can be characterized as a decentralized
and localized system. But, a myriad of problems relevant to
decentralization have occurred, such as selshness among the
ministries, duplication of investment, and lack of cooperation.
Entering the new millennium, the STI policy changed to a central
integration system, merging different institutes that were deemed to

Fig. 2. Trend of number of researchers. Source: MEST (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, http://www.mest.go.kr).

L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524


Table 4
Brief explanation of history on STI policy.
Period

Characteristic

Main event

1960s-1980s

Introduction,
Development Period
Introduction of national
STI Policy
Information dissemination by
single organization(KORSTIC)
Off-line oriented services
Diversied, Expanded Period

1962: Foundation of KORSTIC


(national STI institute born)
1983 : Merge of KORSTIC &
KIEI KIET

1991-2000

Foundation of Information
institutes(centers) by
independent Ministries
Decentralized, independent
development &
overlapped services
On-line & Internet Service
2001 - As of today Stabilized, Renovated Period

1991 : KINITI separated from


KIET
1993 : Foundation of KORDIC

1995 : Foundation of Engineering


Research Information Centers
1996 : Foundation of KERIS
1998 : Foundation of KIPRIS
2001 : Merge of KINITI &
KORDIC KISTI
2001 : National Digital Science
Library

Concentration & Merger of


similar institutes among
different ministries
2005 : National e-Science Project
Launching new projects
based on ICTs (Information
Communication Technologies)
Intelligent, high-tech
2006 : National Science &
information service
Technology Information
System(NTIS)
Source: China/Japan/Korea Science and Technology Information Symposium, 2006.

have a similar role and function. In 2001, KINITI and KORDIC, the most
representative institutes in MOST (Ministry Of Science and Technology) and MOCIE (Ministry Of Commerce, Industry and Energy), were
merged into KISTI (Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information), which was supervised by the Ofce of the Prime Minister.
Recent STI policy trends include building an integrated national
information system, thereby connecting distributed information
resources both domestic and abroad. New projects, leveraging ICT
(Information and Communication Technologies) were launched, such
as NDSL (National Digital Science Library), e-Science project, NTIS
(National S&T Information System) project, etc. (Table 4).

519

administering S&T affairs, and coordinating national R&D programs


since its establishment in 1967. Recognizing that S&T are the keys to
Korea's transition toward becoming an advanced nation, Korean
government elevated the position of the minister for MOST to that of
Deputy Prime Minister and instituted the Headquarters of Science and
Technology Innovation in October 2004.
Major STI institutes in Korea include the following: KISTI, KERIS,
KIPRIS, and 18 Engineering Research Information Centers in specic 18
demographical areas (Fig. 3).
KISTI (Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information) is the
most representative institute providing STI service to promote national
competitiveness in science and technology. To maximize the value of
customers by implementing integrated information service that has
been rarely tried in other countries, KISTI develops and secures
domestic and foreign information resources, strategic information
analysis, supercomputing, and advanced R&D network infrastructure.
The detailed system of KISTI will be covered in the next section.
KERIS (Korea Education & Research Information Service) was
established by the Ministry of Education and Human Resource. The
role of KERIS is to develop human resources through e-learning, to
regain public trust in education, to lay a foundation for knowledge and
information-based society to initiate e-learning, and to enhance
national education and research competitiveness through academy
digitalization.
KIPRIS (Korea Institute of Patent Right Information), managed by
KIPI (Korean Intellectual Property Ofce), provides a free patent
information search service on the Internet. It includes all of the Korean
IP information (patents, utility models, designs, trademarks) available
through KIPI, the entire Korean Industrial property rights information
since 1948 (approx. 3.5 million cases), and patent information of the
major patent authorities (EPO, JPO, USPTO, WIPO) since 1980.
Engineering Research Information Centers were founded from
1995 to 1999 in 18 specialized Korean universities to disseminate the
R&D performances of universities and to promote the R&D strength
of the universities. The budget is supported by KOSEF (Korea Science
and Engineering Foundation). Each center has accumulated and
rened a plethora of data gathered from domestic and overseas
networks.
6. KISTI (Representative National STI Institute)

5.2. STI infrastructure governance

6.1. Model of STI infrastructure

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has been the


central agency for formulating and implementing national S&T policy,

KISTI has a very unique information infrastructure that is different


from general western STI institutes. KISTI has an integrated

Fig. 3. Domestic STI infrastructure service system.

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L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524

Fig. 4. Model of KISTI Infrastructure Integration.

6.2. National R&D information system

information infrastructure, which provides R&D planning information


as well as commercialization information. KISTI combines all
information-related duties that were scattered across different
agencies and the organization responsible for coordinating all of
Korea's national S&T information organizations. By increasing the
development and archiving of Science & Technology Information
resources in Korea and overseas, KISTI is leading the utilization of
knowledge & information at the national level. The role of KISTI can be
broken down into the following 4 elements: national R&D information
dissemination, information analysis system development, supercomputing, and network infrastructure.
NDSL (National Digital Science Library), which transferred from
KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of S&T) to KISTI in 2006, plays an
especially important role in S&T information dissemination. NDSL
provides e-commerce services through a library network composed of
more than 370 participating institutes under the KESLI (Korean
Electronic Site License Initiative) consortium, and acts as a national
scholarly portal through which it provides overseas information. After
its launch in May 16, 2001, NDSL has been providing a one-stop
gateway service for foreign literatures written in English.
Because of the integrated resources of KISTI, it is possible for
Korean researchers to efciently search R&D trends, various journals,
patents, and to use high-tech equipment such as supercomputers and
global R&D networks (Fig. 4).

6.2.1. Status of R&D information management (up to 2006)


National R&D programs supported by the government have been
playing a signicant role in fostering R&D competition; the public R&D
budget reached about $7.8 billion in 2005. National R&D information
is the overall information pertinent to the implementation of national
R&D projects, such as human resources, research equipments, and
R&D performance reports.
Information creation and distribution is implemented by the
national R&D project management institutes, such as KISTEP (Korea
Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning), ITEP (Industrial Technology
Evaluation and Planning), and IITA (Institute for Information
Technology Advancements). Table 5 shows the status of national
R&D projects and tasks performed from FY 2002 to 2005. In total, 104
project management institutes, such as KISTEP, ITEP, and IITA, are
managing national R&D projects independently.
Table 6 shows the information status of R&D performance reports,
which is systematically connected across 24 national R&D project
management institutes, such as IITA and KRISS (Korea Research
Institute of Standards and Science).
Table 7 shows the information of research personnel that is
connected with 24 institutes, such as KOSEF (Korea Science and
Engineering Foundation) and KRF (Korea Research Foundation).

Table 5
Information of national R&D tasks.

Table 6
Information of research reports.

FY

2002

2003

2004

2005

FY

2002

2003

2004

2005

No. of projects
No. of tasks

211
22,921

266
25,794

314
26,514

390
30,795

No. of reports
No. of associated institutes

65,941
16

68,560
16

75,094
21

168,225
24

L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524


Table 7
Information of research personnel.

521

Table 9
Patents information.

FY

2002

2003

2004

2005

Institutes

KISTI

KIPRIS

No. of personnel
No. of associated institutes

155,067
7

278,695
17

329,242
24

323,184
24

Total records
(Domestic:Foreign)

17,122,881
2,684,372

30,111,000
14,438,509

14,958,000

15,153,000

Source: China/Japan/Korea Science and Technology Information Symposium, 2006.

Table 8 shows the information of equipment/machinery connected with 344 institutes, KBSI (Korea Basic Science Institute) and
SMBA (Small and Medium Business Administration), etc.
Since the launch of national R&D projects on a full scale in 1980s, it
has been difcult to formulate a consistently systemic national R&D
information policy. Here, we have witnessed a myriad of problems,
such as the lack of a common interface and poor inter-connectivity
between systems used to access R&D information that is scattered
throughout R&D management institutes. The root cause of these
challenges is that each national R&D system was independently
developed and implemented.
The R&D Information System can be dened as an integrated
information system that is used to support the commercialization of
R&D results. These results may include: patent information, technology evaluation information (information about the product and
market data, possibility of commercialization on the technologies),
technology transfer information, and analysis information, which are
mainly produced and disseminated by KIPRIS, KTTC (Korea Technology Transfer Center) and KISTI (Tables 9 and 10).
6.2.2. Establishment of R&D information integration system (From 2007)
The demand for the integration of national R&D project information has been increasing in both private and public sectors. The
information that has been archived by Korean R&D institutes is not
easy to access and has particularly limited availability for public
access. In an attempt to resolve current problems with the national
R&D information system as it has been dispersed across individual
institutes, Korea launched the NTIS (National S&T Information
System) project, executed by KISTI in 2007.
The objective of NTIS is to support national R&D innovation
through creation of a nationally integrated S&T information network.
The major purpose of this project is to establish greater systemization
to improve the efciency of planning, managing, and evaluating
national R&D implementation through the entire project cycle. The
NTIS project will be completed by the year 2009, and its scope
includes performance information, equipment/machinery information, manpower information, innovation policy information, local
information, etc. The nal goal of this system is to establish a onestop support system connected in relevant information and institutes
for the national total R&D project management and dissemination
(Fig. 5).
A dramatic advancement of information technologies, such as
Internet technology, allows people to access information and knowledge anywhere and any time. But it is not easy to assess the value of
information acquired from various sources. For the purposes of
utilizing the national R&D products and maximizing its opportunities,
it is important to provide Korean industries with patent and industry
analysis information, thereby assisting in the decision making
involved in R&D project commercialization.
It is necessary to make an effective investment in promising R&D
projects for continued industrial growth. To do so, it is essential to

analyze the synthetic industry environment, which includes analyzing


international competitiveness, core technologies, and products of
promising elds. Therefore, KISTI initiated information analysis
services since 2001. Sci-tech information analysis is one of the most
critical elements used in establishing science and technology policy
which is based on a national perspective and in determining research
direction for the R&D institutes.
Knowledge from the human brain is becoming more important than
searchable information on the Internet. An Internet community could be
an ideal place where people meet and share their knowledge, regardless
of time and place. KOSEN (the global network of Korean scientists and
engineers) is a unique information analyzing system rarely seen in
other countries is a human network implemented in cyberspace.
KOSEN was established in 1999 in order to share knowledge and
information resources of Korean scientists and engineers around the
globe. KOSEN strives to achieve three goals: rst KOSEN collects,
creates, and distributes knowledge. All members are from advanced
countries and produce valuable cutting-edge information through
analyses and reports. Second, KOSEN tries to build a strong network
among Korean scientists and engineers from all around the globe. As a
result of this network, participants can immediately receive practical
knowledge. Lastly, KOSEN provides Korean scientists and engineers
abroad with motivation and opportunity to contribute to the
betterment and proliferation of Korea by sharing their knowledge
(Table 11).
With these goals, KOSEN prides itself as an infrastructure for
international cooperation and knowledge and information exchange.
At present, more than 19,000 scientists and engineers from 40
countries around the world are active members of KOSEN.
KOSEN provides enough incentives to members to induce them to
willingly participate in the structure of spontaneous knowledge
circulation. The future of a knowledge community belongs not to
the quick or technically adept, but to the long term harvesters that
have access to the abundant human resources that exist in
networks.
6.3. Status of high-tech R&D infrastructure
To foster state-of-the-art research and to overcome scientic
challenges on the basis of the most innovative and leading
technologies, which will ensure the nation's global competitiveness,
high-tech R&D infrastructure like high performance supercomputer
power and networking would become crucially important elements.
Korea has powerful supercomputing systems that enable scientists
and engineers in government, industry, and academia to meet with
both existing and future high-tech R&D demands.
Table 12 shows the main providers of supercomputing resources in
Korea. However, most institutes, except for KISTI, use their supercomputer resources with the aim of meeting their own business goals.
Only KISTI, as a national and a public supercomputer center, provides

Table 10
Technology transfer, evaluation, trend, and analysis information.

Table 8
Information of equipment and facilities.
FY

2002

2003

2004

2005

Info.

No. of pieces of equipment/machinery


No. of associated institutes

21,375
328

23,297
337

24,690
342

26,258
344

Tech. transfer
info. (KTTC)

Tech. evaluation
(www.Firstep.or.kr)

Trend info.
(KISTI)

Analysis info.
(KISTI)

No. of records

24,334

60,650

265,497

16,931

522

L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of NTIS system. 4.3 Information Analysis System.

such technology and resources to all domestic scientists. The total


peak performance of the systems marked 6566 Gops as of Dec. 2005,
and it exceeds a half of the capacity of the whole public supercomputing resources within the nation.
The R&D network system of Korea is divided into two clusters, one
is a high speed research network called KREONET (Korea Research
Environment Open Network), and the other is a broadband convergence R&D network, called KOREN (Korea Advanced Research
Network). These networks provide domestic scientists with supercomputing resources and enable the exchange of science and
information technology data (Table 13).
KREONET is a national R&D network, which is run by KISTI and
supported by the Korean government, specically by the Ministry of
Science and Technology (MOST). KREONET has 13 regional network
centers, each of which has a GigaPOP. These GigaPOPs are connected
with one another at a bandwidth of 520 Gbps. Currently, KREONET is
comprised of more than 150 organizations are member institutes,
including various groups of research communities in academia,
industry, government, and scientic organizations. In order to
encourage international research collaboration and remote education,
KREONET has established connections with EuroPANET (EU), NSFNET,
CERFNET, STARTAP/StarLight (US), Chinese Academy of Science/CNIC,
CSTNet (China), and IMNET (Japan). These connections were
extended to Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Devel-

opment (GLORIAD) activity for the advancement of science and


research development within the global community.
These connections will offer active collaboration in building
national e-Science with international scientists and researchers.
KOREN was founded for the purposes of expanding the technological
foundation of Korea and providing a research environment for the
development of high speed telecommunications equipment and
application services. Established in 1995, KOREN is a nonprot
research network that seeks to provide universities, laboratories,
and industrial institutes with a research and development environment for 6T-related technology and application services, with subsidy
from the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Also, in order to meet the various demands of the overall science
and technology industry, a next generation advanced research
environment based on QoS/Multicast/IPv6/MPLS was organized in
1998. In addition, GigaPoPs have been established in 6 areas (Seoul/
Daejeon/Gwangju/Daegu/Busan/Suwon) and have been further
expanded nationwide. Currently, KOREN provides member institutes
with 155 Mbps1 Gbps of network service and is expanding its
domestic research base by integrating with KREONet2. Besides,
KOREN is integrated with U.S./Japan/China/Singapore/Europe
through an APII test bed and TEIN to allow various global collaborative
researches to progress efciently.
6.4. Establishment of national e-Science project

Table 11
KOSEN information and its uses.
Database

Information

Uses

General information

News
Events
Call for paper
Jobs
Projects
Grey literature
CRS reports
Overseas tech-trends
Expert review
Conference report
In-depth reports on high-tech trends

58,497
10,313
1006
18,949
552
3065
603
47,032
635
239
217

Technical information

Knowledge

214,172
43,556
11,016
338,168
13,227
55,157
9130
143,070
112,629
21,297
39,934

Year: Dec. 2005.


Source: A Study on the knowledge for Creating and sharing implicit knowledge, Key
Engineering Materials, 2005.

The national e-Science project in Korea is intended to provide


innovatively enhanced research infrastructure that enables researchers to use nationally distributed R&D resources (i.e., high performance computing, databases, scientic instruments, and human
resources) in areas such as a linkage system in cyber space by using
high-end information technology. E-Science in Korea can be characterized as the new paradigm for the next generation in research
innovation. This paradigm will signicantly improve R&D

Table 12
High performance super-computers.
Institutes

KISTI

SNU

KIST

KMA

Pos-Data

Government

Rpeak Sum

6,566

8,518

4,915

18,442

3,360

2,242

L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524


Table 13
National R&D networks.
Institutes

KISTI

NCA

Network name

KREONET (Ultra-high
speed research network)
Domestic: 520 Gbps
(13 local network centers)
Abroad: 10 Gbps (Connecting
with GLORIAD network)

KOREN (Broadband Cover


R&D network)
Domestic: 155 M35 Gbps
(6 local network centers)
Abroad: 155 M1.2 Gbps
(Connecting with TEIN/APII
network)
60 Institutes

Speed/connection

Using institutes

154 UniversityIndustryInstitutes

productivity through the utilization of the diversied research


resources in research activities. E-Science is concretely dened as
the combination of three different developments: the large scale
sharing of computational resources; the provision of access to
massive, distributed, and heterogeneous datasets (in the order of
tera- to petabytes); and the use of digital platforms for collaboration
and communication. Korea launched the e-Science project in 2005 to
enhance the utilization of supercomputing infrastructure locally
dispersed in domestic and foreign countries.
The e-Science project refers to the science made possible when the
resources are held on computers at widely-dispersed locations.
Korea's e-Science project is spearheaded under the direction of the
Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and is progressing in
cooperation with the related ministries and institutes including public
and private sectors. To make the e-Science project successful, the
fundamental element for success is to use highly developed information technology and network infrastructure in Korea. The objective of
the e-Science project is to improve the national R&D productivity by
establishing high-tech environments on a national-level by 2010.
Above all, e-Science in Korea will be applied to high-technology
sectors, such as IT (Information Technology), BT (Bio Technology), NT
(Nano Technology), ET (Environment Technology), and ST (Space
Technology) industry.
7. Conclusion and current STI issues
During the past decade, Korea considered the STI infrastructure as
one of the basic elements for the science and technology competitiveness, and developed an innovative new STI model, different from
that of Japan and western countries. The STI infrastructure of Korea
can be characterized as an integrated and connected service system
centered on the most representative national STI institute.
Needless to say, most advanced countries are supplying necessary
information by running public information institutions. However, we
have not yet witnessed any country which is providing a consolidated
service of information circulation, information analysis, or supercomputing, etc. through a single institution for connectivity and
consolidation. Most advanced countries are operating independent
institutions that specialize in information circulation, information
analysis, supercomputing, and research network as separate entities.
The STI system of Korea is performed mainly by KISTI, a central S&T
information infrastructure institute, sponsored by the government.
KISTI provides a full-cycle support system for R&D researchers in such
a way that covers from R&D planning information to commercialization information of R&D output.
The STI infrastructure of Korea consists of three different sectors:
1) the R&D information dissemination system, 2) the information
analysis system, and 3) the supercomputing and R&D network
system.
The rst sector is the R&D information dissemination system. KISTI
has established a national digital library through which various
Science & Technology Information and overseas publications can be
searched and shared by universities, businesses, and research centers.
The information portal service, which offers easy-to-use services like

523

any other web portal, provides detailed R&D information in certain


science and technology elds with one-click service.
KISTI is also operating the National Science & Technology
Information System (NTIS), which shares all information required in
R&D, including the nation's research progress, research manpower,
planning, evaluation information, etc. By preventing the dispersion of
research power one of the effects of overlapping and reduplicating
research KISTI is effectively supporting the nation's R&D activities,
and more effectively utilizing costly R&D equipment and quality
manpower. Furthermore, it has established a network of Korean
scientists and businessmen to share and provide the latest science
technology and business information.
The second sector is the information analysis system. KISTI's
information analysis capabilities, which focus on R&D planning and
commercialization projects, are leading to technology innovations of
Korean enterprises and to stronger competitiveness in the global
market. By establishing an information analysis system for future
industries and advanced technologies, KISTI is providing high valueadded information in prominent technology related elds. In addition,
to assist corporations in emerging new technologies and building high
value-added, high-tech industries of the future, KISTI is strengthening
its search for prominent technologies, as well as its capacities in
analysis & research and information consulting for supporting
medium sized enterprises.
Specialized marketplaces should be established for the purposes of
knowledge sharing and analyzing information. Korea's Global Network of Korean Scientists and Engineers (KOSEN, www.kosen21.org)
is a successful example of knowledge community. KOSEN was
established in order to share knowledge and to analyze information
of Korean scientists and engineers all around the globe. All members
are from advanced countries and produce valuable cutting-edge
information through analysis and reporting, thereby creating valueadded reports. These activities contribute to the improvement of
Korea's scientic and technological competence.
The third sector is the supercomputing and network system.
Korea implemented super computers for the rst time in 1988. By
constantly deploying high performance super computers, Korea has
established a world-class level of supercomputing infrastructure. By
operating GLORIAD, an international science technology collaboration research network that connects the world based on super
computers and the nation's science technology research network,
Korea is creating the next generation cyber research environment,
called e-Science, and strengthening Korea's competitiveness in
science & technology. In addition, KISTI is utilizing its supercomputing resources in the eld of basic science, which includes
predicting black hole collisions, formation of space, and high
energy physics testing. KISTI is contributing to maximizing research
productivity by combining super computers and IT technologies.
However, Korea has faced some problems in the development of
national STI policies & services thus far and these problems need to be
urgently resolved. The main issues involving STI of Korea are as
follows:
In the expansion of national STI resources: there is an apparent lack
of collection and accumulation of major information resources;
In the globalization of STI information infrastructure: there is a
need for more comprehensive strategies for connecting, sharing,
and trading domestic information with foreign information
resources on the national level;
In the high-tech innovation of information infrastructure: there is a
need for the establishment of an integrated operation system of
comprehensive, national high-tech resources (i.e. super-computers,
high voltage electron microscopy, and ultra-high speed networks).
Along with rapid development of ICT, the STI policy of Korea
entered into a new era that can be characterized as an integrated and
inter-connected system, a more easily accessible one-stop system.

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L. Yun-Seok, K. jae-sung / Government Information Quarterly 26 (2009) 516524

Cooperating with domestic & foreign information agencies to build a


national STI infrastructure, Korea needs to legislate for the control of
all of the government's information agencies, and to renovate the
whole system by allowing interconnections among all types of
information (scientic research information, national R&D information, market information, local information, analyzed information,
and high-tech R&D infrastructure). As a result, Korea will continuously
enhance the STI policy that will have a signicant impact on national
R&D competitiveness.

References
KISTI (Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information), China/Japan/Korea
Science and Technology Information Symposium (2006).
Lee, J. Y., & Hahn, S.-H. (2005). A study on the knowledge for creating and sharing
implicit knowledge. Key Engineering Materials, 277, 331336.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (MEST), Korean Science and
Technology Development document. Retrieved March 21, 2007, from http://www.
mest.go.kr
World Competitiveness Year Book.(2006). International Institute for Management
Development : IMD

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