R&D Pre-Feasibility Study Abolition — Recovery of Research Autonomy or Risk of Loosened Control?

The government officially formalized de facto abolition of the R&D Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) system. 2026 R&D budget: 35.5 trillion won — historically largest. Combined with PFS abolition, PBS (Project Based System) phased abolition, and significant reduction of administrative forms, the government characterizes this as "restoration of research autonomy." The question: is PFS abolition genuine reform that frees the research environment, or the beginning of a different management system where control mechanisms disappear? Why PFS became a "researcher''s shackle": the PFS system was originally designed to prevent financial waste in large national projects; but in R&D, it operated as a procedure blocking research speed and creativity — years-long pre-verification, quantification-centered evaluation, and structures not tolerating failure probability fundamentally conflicted with challenging research. The reform package: 35.5 trillion won budget unprecedented in scale; PFS abolished (removing pre-approval requirements for most R&D projects); PBS phased abolition (ending the practice of researchers piecing together funding from multiple competing grants, which incentivized short-term deliverable-oriented research over long-term basic research); administrative burden reduction. Government''s answer: "post-management strengthening" — AI-based budget review to filter duplicate projects; performance evaluation after execution; transition from pre-control to post-management and data-based monitoring. The critical tension: as control mechanisms shift from pre-approval to post-evaluation, researchers have more freedom to pursue ambitious projects — but also less protection against political pressure to demonstrate quantifiable results. "Tolerating failure" requires institutional protection mechanisms (sequestration from accountability demands) that may be harder to provide under a system where 35.5 trillion won is under public scrutiny.