"Industry-Research Collaboration Must Be Preserved Even After PBS Abolition"... Concerns Over Weakened Cooperation at Research Institutes and Companies

KOITA Report: "61% of Researchers at Government-Funded Institutes Expect Decreased Collaboration with Companies"
Concerns Over Reduction in Short-Term Projects with Small Enterprises... Proposal for Dedicated Resources and Corporate Participation Tracks

As the government moves to abolish the Project Based System (PBS) for government-funded research institutes, concerns have been raised that the function of industry-research collaboration may be weakened. Six out of ten researchers at government-funded research institutes expect that cooperation activities with companies will decrease after PBS is abolished, and companies have also cited the reduction of small-scale and short-term collaboration projects with small and medium-sized enterprises as their biggest concern.

The Korea Industrial Technology Association (KOITA) published a report titled "Measures for Industry-Research Collaboration After the Abolition of PBS" on June 25, which includes these findings.

Reference photo to aid understanding of the article. The Asia Business Daily DB

PBS (Project Based System) is a system under which researchers at government-funded institutes win external research projects to secure funding for salaries and institutional operations. While it was introduced to increase researcher accountability and promote collaboration among industry, academia, and research institutes, it has also led to side effects such as excessive competition for projects, a focus on short-term results, and instability in salaries. In response, the government is abolishing PBS in the economics and humanities fields starting this year, and will phase out PBS in science and technology fields over the next five years until 2030 as part of a system overhaul.

According to a KOITA survey of 242 researchers at government-funded research institutes, 70.7% of respondents said PBS contributed to activating cooperation between companies and government-funded institutes. On the other hand, 61.2% predicted that collaboration with companies would decrease after PBS is abolished.

The area of collaboration most expected to be reduced is small-scale and short-term cooperation projects with companies (56.6%), followed by joint research with companies (48.8%), and commissioned research by companies (42.6%). Additionally, 69.8% of researchers stated that industry-research collaboration should continue to be expanded in the future, citing reasons such as commercialization and social dissemination of research results (73.0%), addressing technological difficulties in the industrial sector (63.7%), and strengthening national industrial competitiveness (57.4%).

"Concern Over Disruption of Collaboration with Small Enterprises"... Both Companies and Researchers Speak in One Voice

Companies also expressed concerns about a weakening of industry-research collaboration after PBS is abolished. In a survey of 486 companies with experience collaborating with government-funded research institutes, 77.2% said such collaborations were helpful for their research and development (R&D), and 78.9% said they were satisfied with the cooperation.

However, the most concerning expected change after PBS abolition was the reduction of small-scale and short-term collaboration projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (39.6%). This was followed by concerns about the rigidity of collaboration procedures and increased administrative burden (17.5%), difficulty in finding contact points for collaboration within government-funded research institutes (12.6%), and the weakening of technology advisory and problem-solving functions (12.4%).

KOITA suggested that, even after PBS is abolished, it is necessary to maintain the functions of industry-research collaboration by introducing dedicated resources and support tracks for such collaboration, expanding corporate participation in mission-oriented strategic research projects, and advancing performance evaluation and incentive systems for industry-research collaboration.

Kim Jonghoon, head of the Industrial Technology Innovation Research Institute at KOITA, stated, "Even if the abolition of PBS leads to a more stable research environment at government-funded institutes, channels must remain open for companies to access the technology and infrastructure of these institutes when needed. During the transition, the government and research institutes must work together to devise new operational methods for industry-research collaboration so that connections with the industrial sector are not weakened."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.