The Gyeongju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage was established on January 3, 1990 to take over the work of the Gyeongju Michu Royal Tomb Area Excavation Research Group and the Gyeongju Historical Remains Excavation Research Group, which were established in 1973 and 1975, respectively, to study the cultural heritage of the Silla Dynasty.

Its major responsibilities includes the scientific investigation of material cultural relics within its jurisdiction (The Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions), as well as playing a pivotal role in the urgent investigation and administration of universal protection for cultural relics, and providing basic scientific data and of course social education and tourism documents.

In particular, after determining through scientific means the scale and design of the sites of the royal palaces, government offices and urban landscape of the old Silla capital, the Research Institute creates replicas of them. They have performed annual excavation surveys related to the area around the Silla royal castle of Wolseong and the collective residential communities around the eastern outskirts of Hwangneungsa Temple Site with a view to utilizing them as national educational resources and touristattractions.

The institute is also in charge of the comprehensive scientific surveys that have been performed every five years since 1999 and which are related to the protection and maintenance of material cultural remains at Namsan Mountain. It also performs emergency excavation studies and surveys of cultural relics for the protection of interred cultural remains, and publishes the corresponding reports and chronological lists relating on an annual basis. The institute has a scientific conservation room that houses excavated artifacts for the permanent protection of cultural relics.