South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT visited research sites in the Yeongnam region on Thursday and held a meeting at Pusan National University to discuss key R&D policy directions for 2026 and the direction for adjusting R&D budget allocations for 2027.

The meeting was the third in a series of regional sessions, following events in the Chungcheong region on Jan. 16 and the Seoul metropolitan area on Jan. 28. It was arranged to gather views from researchers in key Yeongnam industries such as marine science and technology and aerospace, and reflect them in budgets and systems.

About 80 people attended, including the presidential office secretary for science and technology research funding, the director general of science and technology policy at the ministry, Pusan National University's head of research affairs, the deputy head of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, researchers from government-funded institutes and research administration staff, university professors and graduate students, and industry officials.

The meeting shared key details of the 2026 R&D budget, the largest on record at 35.5 trillion won, and institutional improvements aimed at innovating the R&D ecosystem. It also introduced details of 570 billion won in R&D spending for marine and aviation fields, up 12.6 percent from the previous year, to secure technological sovereignty and develop future markets.

The ministry also introduced key elements of its "R&D ecosystem innovation plan," which is being promoted with the goal of creating an environment that allows researchers to focus on challenging research. It shared steps to reduce administrative burdens, including shifting to a negative system for research fund use and minimizing administrative forms, as well as progress on evaluation reforms such as abolishing evaluation grades and introducing a real-name system for evaluation committee members.

Participants also focused discussions on developing core technologies to secure maritime territorial sovereignty and advance into the space economy era, follow-up systems to swiftly 추진 large R&D projects after the abolition of preliminary feasibility studies, and measures to ease administrative burdens at research sites.

Researchers in the Yeongnam region stressed that the marine and aviation and space industries require large-scale infrastructure and long-term research. They proposed stable research funding and the need to foster region-specialized R&D hubs.

The ministry will conclude the regional series of on-site communication sessions with a final meeting in the Honam region. Based on the discussions, it plans to complete an R&D innovation system that researchers can trust.

Cho Seon-hak (조선학), director general for science and technology policy at the ministry, said, "2026 is a year in which we must deliver tangible outcomes based on the largest R&D budget on record," and added, "We will continue to strengthen on-site communication so that researchers at region-specialized R&D hubs can feel the changes."