Ministry of Science and Technology (South Korea)

Until a recent merger with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources (February 2009), the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) played a pivotal role in formulating and directing national science and technology policy for the last four decades including strategic planning and funding of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. It was also one of the key government agencies that guided Korea's export-led industrialization.

The MOST was founded on April 21, 1967, which is now celebrated as National Science Day. The establishment of the MOST was closely tied to the Five-Year Economic Development Plan of President Park Chung-Hee's government, which started in 1962 with the goal of transforming the nation into a modern industrial [Page 430]economy by utilizing the industrial potentials of science and technology. Following the founding of the MOST, the 1970s saw burgeoning research and educational institutions in science and technology such as Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (1973), the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (1977), and many government research institutes (GRIs).

With the economic takeoff in the late 1970s, driven by the heavy chemical industrialization initiative, the MOST came to play a more active role. It launched the “Designated Research & Development Program” in 1982, followed by numerous R&D programs supporting both basic and application research. With increasing diversification of R&D programs and ministerial involvement in the 1990s, the government created the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in January 1999 to coordinate major R&D programs and supervise the long-term planning of science and technology policy. As the highest decision-making body, the NSTC is chaired by the President and vice-chaired by the Minister of Science of Technology (S&T).

The MOST agency underwent major administrative changes in the 2000s. The Basic Science & Technology Law was promulgated in 2001, replacing earlier laws the S&T Promotion Act of 1967, and the Special Act for S&T Innovation of 1997. The Law mandated the MOST to prepare a five-year plan for national S&T development and activities, such as periodic assessment of government-funded R&D projects, support for S&T education, and international S&T collaboration. In 2004, the Minister of S&T was promoted to the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Office of Science and Technology Innovation was created within the MOST to serve as a secretariat of the NSTC. The MOST played a key role in drafting and implementing the Nanotechnology Development Plan in 2001. Organized in three phases (2001 to 2004, 2005 to 2007, and 2008 to 2010) this plan aimed to build the infrastructure necessary to make Korea among the top three countries in nanotechnology by 2015: areas include R&D, manpower development, and creating research facilities and other infrastructure. Besides economic development, a key facet of this plan is improving life through control of pollutants and improving medical diagnostics and treatments.

More recently, as the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology (MEST) under the new administration, it drafted the National Nanotechnology Roadmap (2008), which organizes nanotechnology into four sectors: environmental technology, nano-energy and nanobio, nanomanufacturing and nanoelements. It anticipates that Korean companies will earn $500 billion in nanotechnology by 2020, capturing 20 percent of the global market. In 2008, the MEST also drafted the National Plan for Converging Technologies; both were approved by the NSTC in 2008.

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