With the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye on March 10, South Korean scientists are hoping for a shift from the traditional focus on applied research to more resources for basic research. Based on GDP, South Korea ranks highly in R&D spending; however, for over the last 40 years, academic researchers have received limited amounts of funding, while the majority of federal funding went to science institutes that partnered with industry. In 2014, most government science funding went to experimental development, which had a budget of $38.4 billion. Applied research received $11.5 billion, while basic research received $10.6 billion. Furthermore, science leaders in South Korea have claimed that a study of the allocation of funds would show that even basic research funding went towards essentially applied research projects in actuality. While the fate of science in South Korea is currently up in the air until a new successor to the president is chosen on May 9, scientists are currently attempting to take matters into their own hands by creating crowdfunding campaigns and collaborative groups that are unaffilliated with companies or government parties.

Source: Nature