Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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
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
517
Table 2
Status of total R&D expenditure in major countries.
Index
Rank
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
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
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).
518
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
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).
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
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
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
520
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
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
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
Table 10
Technology transfer, evaluation, trend, and analysis information.
Table 8
Information of equipment and facilities.
FY
2002
2003
2004
2005
Info.
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
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
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
KISTI
NCA
Network name
KREONET (Ultra-high
speed research network)
Domestic: 520 Gbps
(13 local network centers)
Abroad: 10 Gbps (Connecting
with GLORIAD network)
Speed/connection
Using institutes
154 UniversityIndustryInstitutes
523
524
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