South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday held the 82nd steering committee meeting of the National Science and Technology Advisory Council and reviewed and approved the draft second basic plan and 2026 action plan for R&D on national heritage preservation, management and use.

The National Heritage Administration has drawn up the second basic plan for R&D on national heritage preservation, management and use. It is a five-year comprehensive plan to advance systems for preserving, managing and using national heritage with advanced science and technology, and to cover the creation of industrial value.

The plan sets out a vision of "new future value for national heritage created through science and technology" and pursues measures including advanced preservation and restoration based on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology, fostering domestic and overseas industrial ecosystems and training specialists, and strengthening the R&D management system.

To this end, it will pursue four key strategies: advancement of core technologies for national heritage based on next-generation digital foundations, creation of a sustainable national heritage industrial ecosystem, stronger strategic R&D focused on using results, and advanced technologies for national heritage together with the world.

Under the 2026 action plan, a total R&D investment of 14 billion won will also be carried out. The project to develop national heritage preservation and management technologies to respond to climate change will receive 9.6 billion won. Research on a total of 21 tasks is under way, including 12 new tasks. A new project to develop intelligent advanced preservation technologies for national heritage will be allocated 4.4 billion won and is set to carry out 8 tasks.

Park In-kyu (박인규), head of the Science and Technology Innovation Office, said it was a key roadmap to apply advanced science and technology such as AI to the national heritage sector and lead the creation of new value beyond preservation. He said he hoped field-oriented R&D would help build an industrial ecosystem and revitalise international technology exchanges.