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South Korea to spend $5.6b on science, ICT R&D this year
South Korea’s science ministry will spend 8.1 trillion won (US$5.6 billion) in 2026 on research and development for science and information and communications technology.
The budget marks a 25.4% rise from the previous year, with 6.4 trillion won (US$4.4 billion) allocated to science and technology and 1.7 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) to ICT.
The ministry said funding will support areas like biotechnology, quantum science, semiconductors, and secondary batteries.
Spending in ICT will focus on AI-related projects and training skilled professionals in the sector.
🔗 Source: The Korea Times
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
- Government plans 8.1 trillion won for R&D in science plus information and communications technology (ICT) in 2026 1. MSIT proposed 11.8 trillion won for 2026 R&D, up 21.6% year over year or 33.4% of the 35.5 trillion won R&D budget 1. MSIT’s total 2026 budget is 23.7417 trillion won 2.
- ICT is 1.7 trillion won, while MSIT manages 5.1 trillion won of the 10.1 trillion won AI budget split into 4.5 trillion for nationwide AI transformation plus 0.6 trillion for AI-enabled science and technology (S&T) innovation 1.
- NEXT strategic technologies get 5.9 trillion won, and the researcher-centered R&D ecosystem gets 4.51 trillion won for basic research plus Sejong Science Fellowship (a grant for early-career scientists; 26.0 billion won) 1. It also funds attraction of outstanding overseas scientists 1. The 6.4 trillion won science category does not match these pillars one to one.
- Compute resources expand with 15,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to a cumulative 37,000 units and a National AI Computing Center 1. AI computing gets 2.1087 trillion won in 2026, up from 1.6194 trillion won in 2025 1.
- Regional AI-X (AX) Innovation Hubs receive 104.9 billion won in Gwangju and Daegu, plus Jeonbuk and Gyeongnam 1. AI-X means AI with industry uses.
- Quantum Flagship funding rises from 9.8 billion won to 50 billion won, with programs on photonic computing semiconductors (chips that use light to process data; 4.6 billion won) and AI-Bio Innovation Hubs (programs that apply AI to biotechnology; 10.2 billion won) 1.
