독일 공공연구기관의 성공요인 분석 : 막스플랑크연구회(Max Planck Gesellschaft)의 사례를 중심으로

Korean public research institutes, which is called as Government-sponsored Research Institutes (GRIs), have played an essential role in Korea’s technological and economic development since the establishment of Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966. However, since the middle of the 1980s, Korean public research institutes have had a dilemma in their roles and responsibilities, as industrial companies and universities & colleges increased their R&D capabilities significantly. As a result, by benchmarking German system, Korea introduced the research council system in 1999 in order to enhance R&D productivities of public research institutes. However, after about 20 years of experiences of adopting this system, it is difficult to tell that the Korean research council system has operated successfully. In this study, therefore, we analyze the success factors of the German public research institutes, particularly focussing on the case of Max Planck Gesellschaft, which is recognized as the world best basic research institute in the world. For our purpose, we adopt an analytical framework which is composed of four variables such as people, funds, governmental relationship, and culture. We identified those variables through a series of intensive literature review on international and Korean public research institutes. According to our analysis, the Max Planck Gesellschaft has continued to make a great effort to achieve world’s best research performance in terms of inviting best scientists, training young scientists, and maintaining a stable funding model, and formulating and maintaining its own culture of best research performance. In addition, the German federal and regional governments have secured the research autonomy of Max Planck Gesellschaft and its research institutes. The German federal government has formulated sustainable S&T policies for public research institutes and the Max Planck Gesellschaft also implemented a series of its own programs for researchers and institutes. Based on the those success factors, the Max Planck Gesellschaft has become one of the best basic research institutes in the world since its establishment in 1948. The results identified in this paper would provide some very meaningful implications for the Korean government, National Research Council (NRC), and public research institutes in Korea.