South Korea's National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) said on Monday it will conduct regular joint recruitment every month with government-funded science and technology research institutes under its jurisdiction.

The programme was introduced to address a problem in which job seekers found it difficult to predict hiring periods because recruitment schedules differed by institute, and to improve predictability. The NST joint recruitment also provides hiring information that had been dispersed across institutes on an integrated platform, allowing applicants to check and apply for recruitment postings from multiple government-funded institutes at once.

This month's joint recruitment involves 14 institutes and plans to hire 260 people: 182 researchers, 37 technical staff and 27 administrative staff. Applications will be accepted until March 18 on the NST joint recruitment platform.

The integrated written test will be assessed based on the National Competency Standards (NCS). After it is administered in Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju and Busan on April 4, each institute will confirm final successful candidates through selection procedures such as interviews.

NST Chairman Young-sik Kim (김영식) said securing outstanding science and technology talent is key to national research and development competitiveness, and that the regular joint recruitment will create an environment in which young science and technology talent can take on challenges in a stable way.