Each 12 months on Korea’s Science Day, elementary faculties throughout the nation obtain a set of certificates and medals from the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). These are the “Outstanding Young Scientist Awards,” offered by the MSIT to “science prodigies” chosen from elementary faculties nationwide. The Deputy Prime Minister’s award is designed to encourage kids with distinctive scientific curiosity and creativity to pursue careers as scientists. Since roughly one scholar per college is nominated nationwide, the awards are given on a considerable scale.
While the awards deliver nice pleasure to the youngsters who obtain them, public official A, who organized them, had an unusually troublesome 12 months. A scrambled in each path to discover “suitable” medals to ship to elementary faculties throughout the nation. With solely 67 million gained allotted to the Outstanding Young Scientist Awards, the prize objects had to be procured inside 11,000 gained per youngster. Given hovering costs, that quantity barely covers the price of producing certificates and medals together with packaging and supply. An official on the National Research Foundation of Korea, which collectively runs the awards program, mentioned, “Each medal has to be produced for around 6,000 won, and even that is straining the budget, so next year we plan to find a cheaper vendor for the certificates as well.”
This scenario stems from the absurdly inadequate price range allotted to the federal government’s Outstanding Scientist Awards program. According to authorities information launched Tuesday, the MSIT’s price range for the Outstanding Scientist Awards program, which has been operated since 1987, stands at 1.622 billion gained this 12 months. The price range was 2.104 billion gained in 2019, however was decreased to 1.708 billion gained in 2021 and has remained at 1.622 billion gained since 2024. Factoring in inflation, the actual decline within the price range is even better.
The Outstanding Scientist Awards program is a flagship recognition system for scientists and engineers that started with the institution of the Korea Science Prize in 1987 and has continued for 40 years. It at the moment consists of 10 awards, together with the Korea Top Scientist and Engineer Award, the Korea Science and Engineering Awards, the Korea Scientist and Engineer Award, the Korea Young Scientist Award, the Female Scientist and Engineer of the Year Award, the Korea Engineer Award, the IR52 Jang Young-sil Award, the Science Teacher of the Year Award, the Outstanding Young Scientist Award, and the Choi Seok-jeong Award of the Year. Encompassing your complete life cycle of science and expertise careers — from younger researchers to mid-career and senior scientists, industrial engineers, feminine scientists, science academics, and youngsters with scientific expertise — this system carries important that means and symbolism within the scientific neighborhood.
However, the 40-year-old awards program for scientists and engineers is barely managing minimal operations due to its meager price range. Of the whole 1.622 billion gained price range this 12 months, 1.275 billion gained is allotted for money prizes paid straight to recipients. One recipient of the Korea Top Scientist and Engineer Award receives 300 million gained; 4 recipients of the Korea Science and Engineering Awards every obtain 70 million gained; 4 recipients of the Korea Young Scientist Award every obtain 50 million gained; and 12 recipients of the Korea Scientist and Engineer Award every obtain 10 million gained. Including money prizes from the remaining awards and prize objects reminiscent of trophies and medals, the whole quantity going straight to recipients comes to roughly 1.382 billion gained.
Once money prizes are excluded, little price range stays to improve the equity and status of the awards. Only about 240 million gained is on the market for candidate nominations, knowledgeable critiques, complete screenings, and ceremony operations. An official concerned within the awards program defined, “Some screening committee members receive review fees of around 200,000 won, and even those who travel long distances to conduct reviews are not reimbursed for transportation. We need to identify and recruit experts from diverse fields to ensure fair screening, but since adequate compensation is difficult, we are reducing the number of committee members.”
The award ceremonies, which ought to honor recipients’ achievements and elevate the status of the awards, are additionally being held with cost-cutting measures wherever attainable. One public official who ready a ceremony mentioned, “Once, a staff member hesitantly asked whether we could hold the event without tablecloths. That was right after the same staff member had toured flower markets in person to meet the unit price for bouquets.”
The scientific neighborhood believes that high expertise will stay in science and expertise provided that researchers are assured they’re revered by society. With the focus of expertise in medical faculties and the outflow of expertise abroad intensifying, calls to improve recognition of scientists and engineers are rising louder. The authorities has additionally been rolling out insurance policies to domesticate science and expertise expertise and strengthen recognition since final 12 months. It launched the “Korean-style Stipend,” which ensures analysis dwelling bills of at the least 800,000 gained monthly for grasp’s college students and 1.1 million gained monthly for doctoral college students in science and engineering. This 12 months, it additionally established the Outstanding Science and Engineering Doctoral Scholarship, which can present 7.5 million gained yearly to roughly 1,000 doctoral college students. The “Brain to Korea” program, which attracts high scientists from abroad, has additionally been expanded.
But critics within the area argue that moderately than persevering with to introduce new insurance policies, it’s extra vital to function present awards applications successfully. Without enough recognition that permits home researchers to take pleasure of their work, will probably be troublesome each to appeal to abroad expertise and to stop the outflow of Korean scientists, they are saying.
The scientific neighborhood is at the moment making ready a request to fiscal authorities to enhance the awards-related price range. However, as a result of awards for scientists and engineers are seen as occasion and operational bills moderately than as analysis and growth (R&D) funding, securing a price range enhance is proving troublesome. An official making ready the awards program mentioned, “Giving awards to scientists is not simply an event to deliver cash prizes, but a process of socially recognizing and recording their achievements. Awards and recognition should also be viewed as important policy tools to keep top talent in science and technology.”