The Ministry of Science and ICT said it held a public hearing at 2 p.m. on July 2 at the EL Tower in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, to prepare a draft "Second National R&D Mid- to Long-Term Investment Strategy (2026 to 2030)".

The mid- to long-term investment strategy is the top-level statutory plan under the Framework Act on Science and Technology that sets strategic investment goals and directions for the national R&D budget over the next five years. If the sixth Basic Plan for Science and Technology presented the Lee Jae-myung government’s goals and tasks for science and technology at a meeting in June, the mid- to long-term investment strategy is an investment roadmap to implement the basic plan.

MSIT has analysed 34 million science and technology papers from the past 20 years and more than 20 science and technology policies announced by the government, including state tasks, using AI to prepare baseline data. It said about 400 experts, including a steering committee, 13 subcommittees and 10 specialist committees of the Science and Technology Advisory Council, held more than 30 meetings to draw up the investment strategy.

At the hearing, MSIT’s Office of Science and Technology Innovation presented four strategic directions and eight key tasks. It laid out a roadmap that links national-level missions, performance targets, yearly milestones and an investment portfolio to achieve technology-led growth over the next five years.

Experts by field including AI, bio, semiconductors, policy and talent also held a panel discussion on the investment strategy, chaired by Kyung-hwan Na (나경환), head of the steering committee for the mid- to long-term investment strategy. Panelists assessed the strategy as meaningful in that it objectively derived investment areas by combining collective intelligence from experts with AI data analysis.

The public hearing was held with both on-site participation and a live broadcast in real time through a YouTube channel. MSIT said it will improve the strategy by reflecting opinions presented at the hearing, listen to views from relevant ministries and then finalise it in August through deliberation and resolution by the National Science and Technology Advisory Council.

Park In-gyu (박인규), head of the Office of Science and Technology Innovation, said, "The mid- to long-term investment strategy is a blueprint for creating new growth engines to prepare for the period after the semiconductor supercycle," and added, "We will continue to communicate with the field and will not spare full support."