Korea’s productivity from state-funded research and development projects is the lowest among advanced economies, despite high investment and budget allocation, according to data from the National Assembly and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.

Researchers and scientists say this is because the country does not have a sound platform or infrastructure enabling transfer of technology developed through state-run R&D programs to the private sector.

The low rate of technology transfer leads to low licensing deals, one of key factors measuring R&D productivity, and this could hurt the country’s growth in the long term.
 
Analysts said Korea’s relatively low rates in comparison to the U.S. and Japan were partly attributable to a lack of partnerships between public and private R&D sectors.

“It is very common to see companies and government agencies join forces in the U.S. to solve problems and create solutions through open innovation and R&D models,” said an industry source.

The data showed that Korea’s R&D productivity rate stood at 2.89 percent in 2012, which was less than one-third that of the U.S.

The country’s technology transfer rate fell to 18.6 percent in 2012 from the average of 25 percent between 2008 and 2011.

Korea’s inefficient selection of projects, which are mostly assigned to agencies and universities with high-profile researchers who can provide rapid results, makes it difficult to create new and commercially useful technology, experts said.

The shortage of human resources focusing on smooth technology transfer to businesses is also another reason for the decreasing productivity.

Some 170 research agencies funded by taxpayers’ money had only about 5 employees on average assigned to a technology transfer division in 2012, the National Assembly Budget Office noted.

This was lower than Japan’s 19 staff, the U.S.’ 12 and the European Union’s eight employees specializing in technology transfer.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)