$360m green centre to draw top minds here

Part of plan to push commercialisation of ideas, R&D among institutes of higher learning
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 29 Mar 08;

IN AN effort to encourage the world's top universities to set up research labs in Singapore, the Government is going green.

A future research centre costing $360 million in Clementi Road could come equipped with solar panels, a system that recycles water and corridors bathed in natural light, officials revealed yesterday.

Once built, officials hope the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (Create) will attract top universities to set up research centres here. The centre would have corridors located near the perimeter so that these areas can be lit by sunlight, reducing the need to use lights during the day.

Architects are also exploring installing photovoltaic panels on the building's walls and roofs, so that the latest solar technologies can be tested.

To reduce water use, rain and water from showers and toilets could be recycled.

Besides that project, the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council, which charts Singapore's research direction, has also just approved a budget of $350 million from this year to 2012.

The aim is to push the research, development and commercialisation of novel ideas among institutes of higher learning.

A sum of $50 million will go towards supporting entrepreneurship in the universities, including an Innovation Fund for entrepreneurship programmes.

Some $160 million will go towards encouraging the formation of start-up companies by institutes of higher learning.

Another $125 million has been set aside to help commercialise research and development. Some of this money will go towards grants to encourage polytechnics to build on technologies from the universities and public research institutes, helping to take research closer to the marketplace.

The money will also fund 'innovation vouchers', which will help small- and medium-size enterprises pay for research work done by universities, polytechnics and public research institutes.

A final $15 million will help set up a national centre for innovation studies. It will propose policies to encourage innovation in the private and public sectors.

wycin@sph.com.sg

Where money will go

THE Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council will spend more than $1 billion to push research and development as well as commercialise innovative ideas. Here's where the money will go:

# $256 million - Cancer Research Centre of Excellence

# $287 million - Earth Observatory of Singapore

# $360 million - Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise to attract top universities around the world to set up research centres here

# $350 million - National Framework for Innovation and Enterprise. The money will support the Government's efforts to promote innovation and enterprise in Singapore. Some of the funds will go to institutes of higher learning to push entrepreneurship and to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to tap research and development.