[2026 Parliamentary Audit] Moon Geumju: "Even as future maritime R&D expands... specialists remain concentrated in traditional shipbuilding and mechanical fields"

Comprehensive audit by the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee on the 23rd

Shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, and marine fields account for 56.7% of KRISO's 215 research and technical staff

"Assess demand for specialized personnel in future maritime technology fields and draw up a workforce expansion plan"

Research areas are expanding into future maritime technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, autonomous navigation, clean energy, and smart ports, but concerns have been raised that efforts to secure specialized personnel are not keeping pace.

According to Moon Geumju, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) has 215 research and technical staff out of a total workforce of 320. Of these, 122 staff members, or 56.7%, work in traditional shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, and marine fields, including 61 in naval architecture and marine engineering (28.4%), 39 in mechanical engineering (18.1%), and 22 in marine and marine systems engineering (10.2%).

Moon Geumju, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker.

“Research and development (R&D) planned for the future is rapidly expanding into areas such as AI-based autonomous operation of shipping and ports, marine communications and navigation, clean hybrid propulsion and power systems, AI and big data, and systems and reliability engineering,” Moon said. “Although new R&D projects in AI, autonomous navigation, and clean propulsion are being considered for 2028 and 2029, the specific demand for specialized personnel for each project has not yet been determined. Recruiting staff only after projects begin could make it difficult to conduct research on schedule.”

The gap in the size of research workforces is also substantial compared with major overseas research institutions. According to Moon, the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center has 1,947 research staff; China’s 702 Research Institute of the China Ship Scientific Research Center (CSSRC) has 1,800; Norway’s SINTEF Ocean has 353; and the Netherlands’ MARIN has 450. These institutions are expanding research in ship and marine sectors, as well as in clean technology, autonomous navigation, AI, and digital technology, supported by their research workforces.

The workload of research staff is also a concern. KRISO’s research funding per research and technical employee is approximately KRW 395 million, about 31% higher than the average of KRW 302 million at the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST). Moon said that if staff shortages continue, the number of projects assigned to each employee could increase, leading to research delays and reduced utilization of research outcomes.

“Technological competition in the maritime industry is rapidly shifting from a focus on shipbuilding and mechanical engineering to convergent technologies such as AI, autonomous navigation, clean energy, and smart ports,” Moon said. “It will be difficult to respond to competition in future maritime technologies by simply adding new research projects to the existing workforce structure.”

Moon added, “A five-year workforce expansion plan should be drawn up for 2027–2031, estimating demand for specialized personnel in each future maritime technology field and linking recruitment, retraining, and industry-academia-research collaboration. In particular, the personnel required for new R&D projects should be assessed in advance at the project planning stage so that securing staff, forming teams, and launching projects are coordinated.”

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