Project-based funding for green energy technology by the Korean Green Mission and its changes and characteristics

This study examined how the Green Growth mission of the Korean government which aimed at industrializing green technology affected research funding. Funding for green energy technology and its proportion increased between 2008 and 2012, the period of the Lee Myung-bak government that promoted the mission, and decreased thereafter. At that time, the proportion of funding by the ministry of industry increased temporarily due to the objectives of the mission. It was also observed that mission-related funding was discontinued as a political agenda stopped.

And the type of project was in part influenced by the mission. Funding for applied research and development projects increased during the mission. In particular, funding for development projects and companies significantly increased in fields that have already been commercialized, such as silicon solar cell and light water reactor.

Although funding decreased after the mission, the number of publications continued to increase. However, terms related to green energy technology, which this study identified for searching projects and papers, were used in only 19.3% of the titles and abstracts of funded papers. This suggests that more than 80% of papers are less likely related to the development of green energy technologies. However, it is too early to argue that they are not related to green energy technology, and the indirect relationship between them should also be considered. In particular, since many papers have been published by universities and received funding as basic research, they did not have to be directly linked to the industrialization that the mission desired.

Analysis of the research topics of funded papers was not covered in this study. However, to analyze the extent to which the outcomes of funded research have relevance to the mission, an in-depth investigation of the structure of research topics and their relationships with technology fields should be made in follow-up studies.