President Kim Dae-Jung has given a moment of cheer to Korean scientists amid the gloom of economic crisis. His move to upgrade the status of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to a full-blooded ministry with equal status to its powerful neighbours, such as that of trade and industry, is long overdue (see page 112). With stronger teeth, MOST must now achieve better coordination of policy and funding across the various science-related ministries. With prudence, the move should also lead to more money for some of MOST's more innovative funding mechanisms, such as the centre-of-excellence programme of the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation and the new Creative Research Initiative (see Nature 391, 625; 1998), both of which provide substantial long-term grants for Korea's best researchers in universities and government institutes.

But much remains to be done. The universities, of which there are well over a hundred, have a multitude of science and engineering departments in which talented and not-so-talented scientists and engineers languish. The whole university research system, which is administered primarily by the conservatively minded education ministry, needs to be overhauled through processes of research assessment (still rare in Korea) and more targeted funding of the type provided by MOST. The economic crisis may help this process. Several lower-rank universities are said to be on the brink of financial collapse having invested too heavily in new campuses and other facilities. This may encourage the government to focus its research funding more selectively and wisely within the universities.