Goo Hyeok-chae (구혁채), first vice minister at the Ministry of Science and ICT, discussed future plans by mission under the K-Moonshot programme.

Goo chaired a meeting with related agencies on Aug. 10 in Jiphyeon-dong, Sejong, on the occasion of converting the K-Moonshot overall programme director post to national special-appointed researchers and opening the programme support team office.

The meeting was attended by programme directors for each of the 12 missions as well as officials from government-funded research institutes, the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST), the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).

The K-Moonshot programme is a research and development project that combines science and technology with AI to take on national-level technological challenges. It consists of 12 missions, including new drugs, brain-computer interfaces, nuclear fusion, solar cells, small modular reactor-powered ships, AI scientists, physical AI, humanoids, semiconductors, quantum, rare earths and space data centres.

The government announced its implementation strategy in February. It then signed business agreements with 160 companies in March and selected programme directors by mission and launched the K-Moonshot taskforce in May. From this month, it is converting the programme director positions to national special-appointed researchers and expanding their authority to 추진 missions.

The meeting discussed mission roadmaps that the public can feel, cooperation plans between industry and relevant ministries, and measures to expand the use of AI in the research process.

Goo said, "I thank the PDs and related agencies for their hard work in building the foundation for the 12 missions." He added, "I hope the PDs newly appointed as national special-appointed researchers will actively step forward to solve difficult challenges based on the moonshot spirit of not fearing failure."