Over the past 30 years, Korea, led by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), has established a strong base fostering innovation in science and technology, leading to impressive industrial and economic development.
…
organizations that can deal with both science and technology such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), IBM research laboratories and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have had a major impact on the economy as well as on science and technology.
…
National Laboratories should not compete with these industrial firms in these areas where industry is active. National Laboratories should rather work on more advanced technologies that industry will need in the future but not working at this time. As scientific fields advance and as technologies become sophisticated, new ideas are often synthesized at the interface between various disciplines of science and technology. This means that highly monolithic, single disciplinary research laboratories will not likely generate new exciting ideas.
…
Korea must follow the example of the U.S. in developing its research universities. By doing so, it too can create a new industrial base through research and technological innovation.