Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI)
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) is a premier government-funded research institute in South Korea, operating under the Ministry of Science and ICT. It is not a commercial company but a national entity with a critical mission to build and manage the nation's science and technology information infrastructure. KISTI serves as the central hub for collecting, processing, analyzing, and disseminating scientific and technical knowledge, while also operating South Korea's national supercomputing and high-speed research network facilities.
Established to support the nation's R&D competitiveness, KISTI's core purpose is to empower researchers, policymakers, and industrial players with the data, computational power, and network capabilities needed to drive innovation. Its "business" is to act as the digital backbone and data intelligence agency for the entire South Korean scientific community, ensuring that researchers have world-class resources at their disposal.
Continue…
Core Business: The National Science Data and Computing Hub
KISTI's operations are built on three fundamental and interconnected pillars that define its role in the national innovation ecosystem.
1. National Science and Technology Information Center: KISTI's foundational mission is to acquire, curate, and provide access to a vast repository of global scientific knowledge. It acts as the national library for science and technology, ensuring that South Korean researchers have seamless access to scholarly journals, patents, research reports, and technical trends from around the world.
2. National Supercomputing Center: KISTI is responsible for building and operating South Korea's national high-performance computing (HPC) or "supercomputing" resources. These powerful machines are essential for solving large-scale, complex computational problems in fields like climate modeling, drug discovery, materials science, and artificial intelligence, which are impossible to tackle with conventional computers.
3. National Science and Technology Research Network (KREONET): KISTI manages KREONET, a dedicated, ultra-high-speed research and education network. This network is the digital highway that connects universities, research institutes, and industrial R&D centers across the country to each other and to the global research network, enabling the rapid transfer of massive datasets required for "big science" collaborations.
"Products and Services" (Infrastructure and Information Offerings)
As a national institute, KISTI's "products and services" are the sophisticated platforms, resources, and expert support it provides to its users.
1. Science & Technology Information Services
This is KISTI's core information-providing service, primarily delivered through integrated digital platforms.
ScienceON: This is KISTI's flagship "product." ScienceON is an integrated knowledge portal that provides a single point of access to a vast collection of scientific resources. Its services include:
- Unified Search: Allows users to search across a massive database of academic papers, journal articles, patents, research reports, and trend analyses.
- Full-text Access: Provides access to millions of scholarly articles through national licenses and partnerships.
- AI-powered Analytics: Offers tools that use artificial intelligence to analyze research trends, identify key researchers in a field, and provide insights based on the scientific literature.
Other Databases: KISTI also manages specialized databases, such as the National Digital Science Library (NDSL) and patent information systems.
2. Supercomputing and HPC Services
KISTI provides access to its powerful supercomputers as a national service.
- HPC Resource Allocation: The primary "service" is providing computational time (CPU and GPU hours) on its supercomputers, such as the Nurion system and its successors. These resources are allocated to academic, public, and industrial research projects based on scientific merit and national priority.
- Technical Support and Consulting: KISTI's team of HPC experts provides crucial support to users. This includes helping them to optimize their scientific code to run efficiently on the supercomputer's architecture, troubleshooting complex computational problems, and providing training on parallel programming.
- Cloud-based HPC Services: Offers more flexible, cloud-like access to its computing resources, allowing users to run simulations and data analyses on demand.
3. KREONET - National Research Network
- The Service: KREONET provides ultra-high-speed, dedicated network connectivity (up to terabits per second) to over 200 member institutions. This is not a commercial internet service but a specialized backbone for R&D that is essential for projects that generate or consume petabytes of data, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments or large-scale genomic research.
4. Data-Driven Intelligence and Analysis
KISTI leverages its unique position at the intersection of big data and supercomputing to offer high-value analytical services.
- Technology Intelligence: Provides in-depth analysis of technological trends, patent landscapes, and market intelligence to support government R&D planning and corporate strategy.
- Support for SMEs: KISTI runs a dedicated program to support small and medium-sized enterprises. This service gives SMEs access to supercomputing resources for product simulation and design, provides them with market and technology information to help them innovate, and offers technical consulting to solve R&D challenges. This is a critical service for fostering innovation beyond large conglomerates.
