The government will sharply reduce administrative forms for national research and development (R&D) and integrate research support systems. It aims to create conditions in which researchers can focus on their work by cutting the time spent drafting forms and submitting supporting documents.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Thursday that a draft “innovation plan for the national R&D administrative system to ease research administration burdens” was reviewed and approved at the ninth meeting of ministers for science and technology affairs.

The plan follows up on the “innovation plan for an R&D ecosystem that leads the future through science and technology” announced at the first meeting of ministers for science and technology affairs in November last year. The key measures are to overhaul national R&D administrative forms and integrate and link research support systems.

There have been 58 standard national R&D forms, but researchers faced administrative burdens as ministries and specialised research management agencies routinely demanded additional forms. The ministry formed a national R&D administrative form simplification task force with 27 specialised agencies and conducted a full survey from December last year, confirming a total of 2,171 administrative forms.

The ministry will abolish 1,952 forms that are for simple reference or duplicated, and digitise 65. It will reorganise the remainder into 154 permitted forms, simplifying more than 90 percent of all forms. The 154 permitted forms will consist of 67 standard forms and 87 non-standard forms.

For non-standard forms, the number that can be attached will be limited by stage of an R&D project. Up to 3 will be allowed at the announcement and application stage, and up to 2 each at the evaluation, agreement, project execution and post-management stages.

Digitisation will also be pursued. The ministry will revamp the cross-ministerial integrated research support system, IRIS, to convert simple confirmation and self-check forms into a checklist format. It will also implement electronically 15 researcher consent procedures, including consent to provide personal information. By linking IRIS with external administrative systems, 49 forms related to researcher qualifications and supporting evidence will be submitted automatically.

From July, all national R&D projects posted on IRIS will be run across the entire process based on the 154 permitted forms. In principle, the submission of additional documents beyond the permitted forms will be banned. Even where additional forms are needed due to project characteristics, they will be allowed only on a limited basis within a total-cap system.

Research support systems will also be integrated. From June this year, the ministry will enable access to major services with a single login through “Research24,” an integrated login site for R&D services. By 2028, it will integrate four major research support systems — research projects (IRIS), research funds (Ezbaro and RCMS), and research information (NTIS) — around IRIS. It will also gradually introduce AI-based administrative support services, including applying artificial intelligence (AI) to research administration processes such as evaluator recommendations and Q&A on regulations.

The ministry expects the plan to reduce the annual burden of preparing about 400,000 administrative forms and cut at least 20,000 hours of research administration time. It said it aims not only to reduce the number of forms but also to change how forms are prepared, submitted and managed to be centred on researchers.

Park In-kyu (박인규), head of the Science and Technology Innovation Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said “time is the most valuable resource for researchers.” He said the ministry will keep managing the system so unnecessary forms do not increase again and will create conditions in which researchers can devote themselves to research without administrative burdens.

The meeting also discussed the status of AI transformation efforts across ministries, a strategy to secure core competitiveness in physical AI, and the Manufacturing AI 2030 strategy. An AI-based plan to promote private-sector information security to respond to cyber threats and measures to promote the joint use of university research facilities and equipment were also on the agenda.