The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and Korea Student Aid Foundation announced Monday that they will launch the Science and Engineering Doctoral Excellence Scholarship program for the first time in 2026.
The scholarship will select recipients from students enrolled at graduate schools that apply to participate in the program. The application period for graduate schools runs from Tuesday through April 20.
The program is designed to provide financial support so that STEM doctoral students can focus on their studies and research to develop into outstanding talent.
MSIT has been building and expanding a comprehensive scholarship support system spanning undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, following the Presidential Science Scholarship for graduate students in 2024, the Science and Engineering Master's Excellence Scholarship in 2025, and this year's new doctoral scholarship.
The doctoral scholarship program will select approximately 1,000 recipients from STEM graduate schools nationwide, providing 3.75 million won per semester or 7.5 million won annually. To prioritize support for outstanding STEM doctoral students at regional universities, approximately 600 recipients—60 percent of the total—will be allocated to non-capital region institutions.
Eligible candidates must be full-time doctoral students enrolled in or admitted to natural science or engineering programs at domestic graduate schools for the first semester of 2026 and meet certain academic requirements.
Similar to the master's scholarship, graduate schools will recommend students who meet their own selection criteria. Universities operating STEM graduate programs can apply to the Korea Student Aid Foundation to receive their allocated number of slots. Graduate schools will comprehensively evaluate eligible students based on academic and research plans, research activities, grades, social contributions, and economic circumstances before recommending scholarship recipients. The Korea Student Aid Foundation will conduct final reviews to confirm the selections.
Meanwhile, new recipient selection for the Science and Engineering Master's Excellence Scholarship, established last year, will also proceed. For master's-level students, approximately 1,000 new recipients will be selected from STEM graduate schools nationwide, receiving 2.5 million won per semester or 5 million won annually. The program targets full-time master's students enrolled in or admitted to natural science or engineering programs at domestic graduate schools for the first semester of 2026, with the same selection process and application period as the doctoral program.
Under the national agenda to "establish a basic research ecosystem and realize a science and technology talent powerhouse," MSIT plans to expand scholarship support for outstanding STEM graduate students to 10,000 recipients annually by 2030, enabling them to focus on their studies without the burden of tuition costs.
"With the introduction of the Science and Engineering Doctoral Excellence Scholarship this year, we have completed a comprehensive scholarship support system for outstanding STEM undergraduate and graduate students," said Lee Jun-bae, Director General of Future Talent Policy at MSIT. "We will continue to expand support so that young scientists and engineers can grow without interruption."
Universities applying for the doctoral scholarship can submit their participation applications through the Korea Student Aid Foundation's university/institutional administrator scholarship support system from 9 a.m. on April 14 to 6 p.m. on April 20.
