The government will prepare a cross-government response system to establish research security. The move aims to manage risks in advance, including leakage of research assets and undue foreign interference, as international joint research and open research cooperation expand.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held a meeting on research security in Seoul on Monday with related agencies and on-the-ground experts, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the National Intelligence Service. At the meeting chaired by First Vice Minister Gu Hyeok-chae (구혁채), participants reviewed the basic policy direction, future plans and the operating system to establish research security.

Research security is a system to protect the research ecosystem by managing risks that can arise in open international research cooperation, including theft of research assets, inducement to share information improperly and foreign interference. The need for research security management is growing in South Korea as international cooperation becomes routine and research openness expands.

The government set a policy direction to support researchers so they are not unintentionally exposed to risks and to promote securing technological sovereignty and international cooperation. The basic direction includes balancing protection of researchers and research assets with open innovation, preventing risks in advance through support for research sites, differentiating measures based on sensitivity in technology fields, and strengthening cooperation with major countries.

The government will first expand systems to support safe international cooperation across research sites. A research security center was launched in April to support self-driven research security efforts in academia. From July, the government will start support so individual universities can have organizations and staff dedicated to research security. It will provide tailored training focused on on-the-ground cases and support the settlement of a culture and system at research sites to diagnose the reliability and safety of international cooperation.

It will improve management systems to transparently identify benefits received from foreign sources and prevent conflicts of interest. The government will systematise management of foreign research personnel participating in national research and development projects and overhaul the operation of security regulations and security inspection systems at government-funded research institutes and major universities.

The government will apply a higher level of measures in fields with high strategic importance. It plans to create a new mid-level security classification for national research and development projects called “sensitive projects” in August. Sensitive projects will be managed with a focus on preventing overseas leakage of research results to proactively protect technologies that require strategic development at the national level.

For major international cooperation projects with high sensitivity or large budgets, the government will pursue a plan to review the reliability of cooperation in advance at the stage before launching. It plans to expand a full-cycle research security management system after pilot applications. For national core talent such as world-class scientists, it will provide priority protection measures, including research security education and consulting, and it will also push to expand benefits for those conducting research in sensitive technology fields.

To that end, the government will operate a national-level research security response system in which ministries, related agencies and research sites communicate closely. It will also strengthen policy cooperation and coordination with major countries and international consultative bodies to respond to emerging research security issues.

First Vice Minister Gu said, “We will put in place an on-the-ground support system to help our researchers engage in safe international cooperation.” He added, “We will do our utmost so that South Korea can leap forward as a trusted partner equipped with a global-level research security system.”