Public research funding in Asian latecomer countries: developmental legacy and dilemmas

This chapter discusses the distinctive features of public research funding of Asian latecomer countries. Public research funding of these countries has formed an integral part of their postwar developmental strategies to leverage science and technology for economic modernization, which left strong footprints on the modes of research funding allocation. Many of these developmental legacies are discernible in the strategic utilization of research and development for national goals as well as the active use of periodic central planning to pick winners. Having successfully caught up with advanced countries with enormous funding spurts, these countries now face common challenges to upgrade their public research funding systems so as to compete at the frontier of scientific discovery and technological innovations. This requires significant effort to handle post-catch-up dilemmas in setting the foci of research funding between different types and purposes of research, and to design incentive mechanisms to foster transformative research.