In Korea, there is a Polar Research Institute that studies the climate environment of the North and South Poles.
We are also conducting genetic resource research to find candidate substances for antibiotics or dementia treatments in polar organisms.
As the related budget has been cut virtually entirely, setbacks in commercialization-stage research are expected to be inevitable.
Reporter Yoo Seo-hyeon reports.
[Reporter]
Korea’s Polar Research Institute is conducting polar research with two bases in Antarctica and one base in the North Pole.
‘Polar region’ refers to the surrounding area centered around the South and North Poles.
Because it is a place that reacts sensitively to temperature changes, it is considered the best place to detect and predict climate change.
In addition to the polar environment, the lab also conducts research on unfamiliar polar creatures.
Two years ago, Korea’s Polar Research Institute discovered a candidate substance for the treatment of dementia in ‘lichen’, a symbiont of fungi and algae living in polar regions, and applied for a patent.
The research institute, which also discovered the mechanism of action, planned to secure a candidate drug through commercialization research next year and apply for preclinical testing, but it was in danger of going nowhere.
Next year’s research and development budget of 6.1 billion has been virtually completely cut, leaving only 400 million.
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that the project competition rate was 1:1, so only the Polar Research Institute bid, and that the inefficiency was adjusted as the performance was insufficient compared to the budget spent.
However, it is pointed out that polar메이저놀이터 research itself is highly specialized and that no place other than the Polar Research Institute has the research capabilities and equipment.
In the case of new drug development, it often takes more than ten years from basic research to clinical trials.
[Park Chan-dae / National Assembly member of the Democratic Party of Korea: First of all, polar research must be conducted sustainably, and since achieving research results is not something that can be achieved in a short period of time, it seems that it must proceed steadily. [Shouldn’t the cut budget be restored?]
Of the Polar Research Institute’s next year’s research budget of 105.8 billion won, including genetic resource research, 67%, or a total of 71 billion won, was cut.
Compared to last year, it has decreased by almost half.
Unlike the UK and China, the budget for the project to build a new icebreaking research vessel, of which Korea currently only has one, has been cut by about 75%, or 56 billion won, and related polar research is expected to inevitably be disrupted.
This is Seohyun Yoo from YTN .