네이처誌 “한국 ‘노벨상 프로젝트’ 매우 힘든 한 해 보내" VIDEO: South Korea’s ‘Nobel prize project’ rocked by tough year

South Korea’s ‘Nobel prize project’ rocked by tough year

Researchers fear for the future of the Institute for Basic Science, which has faced accusations of misconduct and a sizeable budget cut.

Update: South Korea's science ministry announced on 10 September that the Institute for Basic Science would be reorganized, following government investigations into the institute's research centres.

President of the Institute for Basic Science Kim Doochul. His term ends this month. Credit: IBS

네이처誌 “한국 ‘노벨상 프로젝트’ 매우 힘든 한 해 보내고 있다”     "한국의 노벨상 프로젝트로 불리는 기초과학연구원(IBS)이 위법 행위에 따른 비난과 상당한 예산 삭감에 직면한데 대해 연구자들이 우려하고 있다."   국제학술지 ‘네이처’는 11일(한국시간) “IBS가 지난 1년동안 재무 관리 실패로 비난을 받고 있으며 한국의 '노벨상 프로젝트' 가 힘든 한 해를 보냈다”며 최근 IBS를 둘러싼 논란에 대해 보도했다. 네이처는 "IBS는 한국 최초로 과학 노벨상을 받기 위해  2011년 설립된 권위있는 연구소"라며 설립 배경을 설명했다. 이어 “독일 막스플랑크연구소와 일본 이화학연구소를 모델로 한국의 기초과학을 육성하는 것이 설립 목표”라며 “IBS는 사실상 한국의 ‘노벨상 프로젝트’라고 불리기도 한다"고 소개했다.  네이처는 IBS에 대한 세계 연구자의 평가도 전했다. 필립 킴 미국 하버드대 물리학과 교수는 네이처와 인터뷰에서 “많은 과학자들이 IBS가 한국의 연구를 세계화하는 데 도움이 됐다고 평가하고 있다"고 소개했다. 킴 교수는 이어 “IBS의 규모와 자원은 국제 연구자들과의 협력을 촉진하는데 도움이 된다”며 “(이런 국제연구 협력은) IBS가 한국 연구를 위해 한 최고의 일 중 하나”라고 평가했다.  그러나 네이처는 IBS가 지난해 말 기관 운영에 대한 특별점검과 올해 초 추가로 실시한 종합감사를 겪으며 힘든 시간을 보내고 있다고 소개했다. 네이처는 “IBS의 최근 문제들은 지난해 10월 국정감사에서 여당 의원들이 김두철 IBS 원장을 ‘다그치면서(grilled)’ 시작됐다”며 “당시 여당 의원들은 중이온 입자가속기 건설 프로젝트가 일정보다 뒤쳐지고 있으며 예산을 초과했다며 비판한 일이 있다”고 전했다. 중이온 입자가속기 건설 프로젝트는 입자를 표적과 충돌시켜 자연계에 존재하지 않는 희귀동위원소를 만드는 장비를 건설하는 프로젝트로 2021년 가동을 목표로 하고 있다. 하지만 두 차례 가동 연기를 겪으며 지난해 국정감사에서 여당 의원들의 공격을 받았다.  IBS는 실제 국정감사 이후 기관운영 특별점검을 받았고 1주일 후 연구예산이 2336억원에서 2254억원으로 7% 줄어들었다. 이와 관련해 김두철 IBS원장은 네이처와 인터뷰에서 “중이온 입자 가속 건설 프로젝트가 IBS 예산의 3분의 1을 차지한다"며 “(중이온 입자가속기 프로젝트에 필요한) 이온 입자를 들여오는 게 1년 지연되긴 했지만 이는 대규모 프로젝트를 진행함에 있어 약간의 차질”이라고 밝혔다. 네이처는 “여러 언론들이 지난 6월 최소 두 군데의 IBS 연구센터가 연구자금을 잘못 썼다고 보도하며 IBS는 더 철저한 조사를 받았다”며 “지난달 조사가 끝나기로 예정되어 있었고 아직 결과는 발표되지 않았다”고 전했다. 네이처는 최근 연구비 부당집행과 연구원 지위 논란과 관련해 연구자들의 입장을 전했다. 네이처는 “많은 연구자들이 연구소에 대한 주장과 언론의 반응이 과장됐다 주장한다”며 “연구자들은 지난해의 사건이 지속적인 영향을 미쳐 조직이 제대로 기능하지 못하게 될까 걱정하고 있다”고 밝혔다.  김빛내리 IBS RNA연구단장은 네이처와 인터뷰에서 “IBS의 기본 철학은 연구자들이 하고 싶은 것을 마음껏 할 수 있도록 완전한 자유를 주는 것이었다”며 “지금 IBS가 비난받고 있는 행위들은 범죄적 행위라기보다 규칙에 대한 혼란 때문에 생긴 일”이라고 말했다. 김 교수는 “혁신적인 스타일의 연구기관이 되기 위한 ‘성장통’이다”고 덧붙였다.  네이처는 마지막으로 “IBS가 세계적인 선진 연구자들을 데려왔고 그들에게 연구 자율성과 함께 한해 약 100억원을 쥐어줬다”며 “몇몇 연구단장이 IBS의 본래 철학과 자율성을 잃어버릴까 걱정하고 있다”고 전했다.  고재원 기자 jawon1212@donga.com 동아사이언스

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It’s been a tumultuous year for the prestigious Institute for Basic Science in South Korea — a collection of research centres that was founded in 2011 and designed to win the country its first science Nobel prize. Modelled on the Max Planck Society in Germany and RIKEN in Japan, the institute’s mission is to foster blue-skies basic science in a country traditionally more focused on applied research. But over the past 12 months, it has faced government investigations and calls for reform, following accusations of nepotism and financial mismanagement — as well as a sizeable cut to its research budget.

The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) is now seeking a new leader: the current president Doochul Kim’s term ends later this month. But many IBS researchers say his replacement, whoever it is, will face a considerable challenge to turn around the organization’s fortunes. Many researchers argue that the allegations against the institute — and the media's response — have been overblown. Still, they worry that the events of the past year might have a lasting impact and make it difficult for the organization to properly function.

“The basic philosophy of the IBS was to give full freedom for the researchers to carry out whatever they want to do,” says Narry Kim, director of the IBS Center for RNA Research. Leading scientists from South Korea and abroad were recruited to start the IBS centres, and were promised autonomy to run them along with roughly 10 billion won (US$8.4 million) a year. But some centre directors worry that proposals for reform, made in wake of the turmoil could erode their autonomy, which they argue would undermine the organization’s original mission.

Many researchers say that IBS has helped to globalize South Korea’s research. The scale and resources of IBS centres help to forge collaborations with international researchers, says Philip Kim, a condensed matter physicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That’s one of the best things that IBS has done for Korean research,” he says.

 

KOREA BASIC SCIENCE INSTITUE

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Tough year

The institute’s recent troubles started in October, when lawmakers from the ruling liberal Democratic Party grilled Doochul Kim during annual parliamentary hearings. They criticized a project to construct a heavy ion particle accelerator in Daejeon for being over budget and behind schedule. The Rare Isotope Science Project consumes about one-third of IBS’s budget. Doochul Kim told Nature that one of the project’s ion sources has been delayed by a year, but that this is a minor setback for a large-scale project.

Following the hearings, the government announced in November that it was auditing 4 of IBS’s 30 centres. And a week later, it confirmed that IBS’s research budget would be cut by 7%, from 254 billion to 236.3 billion won. The cut, which came into effect this year, left centres with an average budget of a little over 6 billion won, says Doochul Kim.

The organization came under further scrutiny when several South Korean broadcasters reported in June that according to audit results, at least two centres had misspent research funds. Media reports also called out multiple centres for questionable hiring procedures, including candidates being reviewed by acquaintances. The media coverage was followed by another government audit — this time of 24 of the 30 IBS centres. The investigation was due to finish last month. The science ministry has not yet released its findings, and the negative media coverage of the organization has continued.

Doochul Kim told Nature that most of the allegations against IBS reported in the media amount to administrative errors rather than nefarious wrongdoing. He thinks that the audits are politically motivated, and criticizes the way some preliminary results have been leaked to the press.

Since its inception, IBS has had critics who think the institute swallows up too much of the nation’s basic research budget. It’s the institute’s “original sin”, says So Young Kim, a science and technology political scientist at KAIST. The institute is also associated with the country's main conservative party which founded it. When the Democratic Party to power in 2017, it was more interested in spreading resources to many researchers, says So Young Kim. “It's a very different philosophy."

When president Moon Jae-in campaigned for election in 2017, his party promised to double the country’s researcher-led grants for basic research. The science ministry says it is on track to meet that goal by 2020.

Doochul Kim says his biggest regret as IBS president is not adapting to the political environment and failing to persuade more politicians to support the institute’s vision.

The shifting political mood has already impacted IBS's vision, laments Doochul Kim. IBS centres were originally granted a ten-year term, with a review for extension in their eighth year. The founding group of centres will come up for review from next year—and it seems likely that only some will be extended, says Kim.

Yannis Semertzidis, director of the IBS Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research at KAIST in Daejeon, suspects that falling budgets are also partly to blame for a decision to put his request to purchase a high-temperature superconducting magnet on hold. Such equipment is crucial for the centre's search for the axion — a theorized particle that could be a component of dark matter. The magnet would give his group a significant advantage over its competition, the Axion Dark Matter Experiment at the University of Washington in Seattle.

But a spokesperson for IBS says the project was reviewed in two evaluations and both found that the project lacked proper feasibility to continue.

Growing pains

Narry Kim, who leads an IBS centre that she says was audited in July, notes that the behaviours that have been criticized might have arisen because of confusion about the rules — rather than anything more nefarious — and that this is an expected “growing pain” for an innovative style of research organization. IBS was designed to break the mould of other public institutions and universities in South Korea by giving centre directors freedom and larger-scale funding to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects that could win Nobel prizes. South Korea has never won a scientific Nobel, and IBS is frequently referred to as the nation’s “Nobel prize project”.

But IBS’s flexibility has sometimes led to ambiguity, Kim says. For instance, ten IBS centres, including hers, are administered by host universities and so are subject to both university and IBS regulations, which sometimes conflict or lead to confusion.

Doochul Kim accepts that some features of IBS need to change to protect centres from being involved in further scandals. He says that he has proposed redefining the institute’s core principle of autonomy so that centre heads would no longer have direct authority to hire tenure-track research fellows, and avoid accusations of nepotism. IBS directors are allowed to do this, but the public can be quick to anger at any hint of nepotism. He also proposed changes to IBS’ administrative structure. For instance, the institute currently has administrative staff at each research centre, but he wants the five IBS centres at KAIST to share a centralized office that would be more powerful and relieve directors of some of their administrative burdens, such as approving all purchasing decisions, no matter how small.

NobelPrize.org

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But the proposals undermine IBS’s original goal of having centre directors make decisions about how they are run, says Semertzidis. IBS management should strengthen internal auditing to root out actual misconduct, but not interfere with the decision-making of directors, he argues.

With Kim’s term almost over, it will be up to his successor to follow-through on his proposals. A committee formed by the IBS board of trustees announced on 5 September a shortlist of three South Korean physicists. The nation’s science minister will nominate one person, subject to the approval of Moon Jae-in.

One bit of good news for the institute is a funding boost for 2020, according to the science ministry’s proposed budget, announced earlier this month. Although this will be for construction of future facilities and not for research centres, an IBS official told Nature.

Semertzidis says the new leader will need time to work out the path forward for IBS. He hopes they will defend IBS’ original goals and establish a better relationship with the government than the current IBS administration. “It’s easy to damage IBS,” he says.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02363-4

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