The government’s spending on state-funded research and development(R&D) activities has jumped by nearly 16 percent last year from a year earlier. 

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday reported to the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology a record high sum of 23-point-nine trillion won executed last year on R&D projects, marking an increase of 15-point-eight percent from 2019. 

Over the past four years under the Moon Jae-in administration, the government’s R&D expenditure grew by an average of seven-point-two percent every year compared to an average growth of four percent under the previous Park Geun-hye government. 

The average amount of budgets earmarked for a single research and development project stood at 320 million won last year, up 10-point-eight percent from the year earlier. 

The number of head researchers increased five-point-three percent in 2020 on-year to 46-thousand-937, while the portion of women among the head researchers grew from 14-point-six percent to 17-point-four percent during the cited period.