Gu Hyeok-chae (구혁채), first vice minister at South Korea\'s Ministry of Science and ICT, visited the National Research Foundation of Korea on March 26 and met project managers at its National Strategic Research Division. They reviewed programme management, including task planning and funding execution, and assessed expected outcomes for a state task aimed at securing next-generation strategic technologies. Participants also shared on-the-ground difficulties and discussed reforms across planning, evaluation and management to encourage challenging research and strengthen researchers\' autonomy and accountability.