New $1b fund for research to tackle Singapore's challenges

Straits Times 18 Sep 10;

THE Government has set aside $1 billion for the next five years to study large, complex national challenges such as energy and environmental sustainability.

The National Innovation Challenge was announced yesterday at the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council's press conference.

The challenge hopes to attract projects studying long-term solutions to major issues facing Singapore such as sustainable urban development, efficient city transportation systems or cost-efficient clean energy, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

'These are major challenges where if we can mount a coordinated effort to tackle them, then we can marshal diverse expertise which we have built up to produce innovative and impactful solutions and make a real difference to Singapore,' he said.

'These would solve Singapore's own problems, make life better for Singaporeans and also spawn new industries to exploit opportunities abroad.'

The first National Innovation Challenge will seek to gain energy resilience through increasing Singapore's energy options, reducing carbon emissions and boosting energy efficiency.

Already, Singapore has pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 16 per cent from projected business-as-usual levels by 2020, contingent on a global agreement about the greenhouse gas.

It currently has a host of schemes to fund energy research and efficiency, such as the Clean Energy Research Programme, a $50 million kitty launched in 2007 to study such technology.

But the National Innovation Challenge has much wider scale and longer-term focus, which energy researchers applauded.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic senior lecturer Tuti Mariana Lim, 42, who studies ways to improve electric vehicle batteries, noted the programme could help scientists work on significant breakthroughs as well as nascent clean-energy technologies such as algal biofuel and hydrogen which may not be immediately viable in the near term.

Singapore Polytechnic senior lecturer Jiang Fan, 52, said: 'This is very long-term planning.'

GRACE CHUA

$16 billion govt boost for R&D
20% increase reflects its growing importance to development: PM Lee
Chua Hian Hou & Grace Chua Straits Times 18 Sep 10;

THE Government is setting aside more money to fund deserving research and innovation projects over the next five years.

The $16.1 billion is a 20 per cent increase over the $13.55 billion it had intended for the previous five years to this year. The Straits Times understands that not all the allocated funds had been spent.

The new funds, which work out to about $3.2 billion per year, represents about 1 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP).

The rise in R&D spending, announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday, 'reflects the growing importance of R&D in Singapore's development as a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy'.

The end-goal is to transform Singapore into one of the 'most research-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial economies in the world in order to create high-value jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans', said PM Lee, who chairs the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC).

The RIEC, a high-level committee set up in 2006 to help Singapore chart a new course in development, includes Cabinet ministers such as Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang as well as international experts like Professor Paul Herrling of drug giant Novartis.

Mr Lee said the funding was a sign of the Government's commitment to research, and acts as a stabiliser, especially during bad times, when private sector money might dry up. The private sector is estimated to contribute some $6 billion to research every year.

Firms like Microsoft and Google spend heavily on research to ensure they have a constant pipeline of new projects and opportunities - as does Singapore, he said.

But research takes time to show results, and the Government would like to avoid a 'feast and famine situation', said Mr Lee. 'This is very disruptive, and we won't get results. So we decided to commit this steady amount which we can afford over a long period,' he said.

However, the funds do not represent a 'blank cheque', and projects that draw from it will need to justify their existence through a rigorous review every three to five years, he said.

Mr Lee also gave an update on the three sectors the Government had previously identified as key to Singapore's growth.

He said there had been significant progress in Singapore's interactive digital media, environmental and water technology, and biomedical sciences industries over the past five years.

The interactive digital media sector, which grew by 15 per cent last year, contributed $867 million, or 0.3 per cent, of Singapore's GDP last year.

Jobs grew by 500, and there are now more than 8,100 game developers, artists, animators, writers and other digital media professionals in some 730 firms.

In the biomedical sciences sector, Singapore has successfully made a name for itself as a recognised centre for clinical research, and many big pharma companies, including Novartis, are coming here to exploit this expertise, said Prof Herrling, Novartis' corporate research head.

The environmental and water technologies sector is also 'growing very nicely'. said Mr Lee.

In the past four years, the number of water companies here has grown from 50 to 70. As at 2007, the water industry employed 9,000 people and contributed $823 million to Singapore's GDP.

Govt allocates S$16.1b for R&D over next 5 years
By S Ramesh Channel NewsAsia 17 Sep 10;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government plans to spend S$16.1 billion over the next 5 years from 2011-2015 on research, innovation and enterprise.

This was announced on Friday by the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and also comprising several cabinet ministers as well as international leaders in science and technology.

The new allocation is a 20 per cent increase over the S$13.55 billion which was committed from 2006 to 2010.

The council said this reflected the growing importance of research and development (R&D) in Singapore's development as a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy.

Singapore's emphasis on R&D is already paying off with some of the leading names in the biomedical industry like Swiss healthcare firm Roche setting up here.

And the country aims to increase gross expenditure on R&D to 3.5 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product by 2015.

Giving details at a news conference, Mr Lee said Singapore's long term aim is to be among the most research intensive and entrepreneurial economy in the world in order to create high value jobs for Singaporeans.

Mr Lee said: "We hope that these R&D investments will create high quality jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans.

"A large part of the R&D money will be awarded competitively to support the best proposals and at the same time we will promote closer collaboration between industry and research institutions."

He said research and innovation underpin the competitiveness of industries, catalyse new growth areas and transform the economy.

Companies like Lucasfilm have set up here.

And members of the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) noted that there has been substantial progress made in strategic research programmes like the interactive digital media (IDM).

"When the IDM programme was first announced, I was sceptical because I wasn't sure whether Singaporeans were diverse, creative and weird enough for the world of interactive media. Having spent time last summer here, and seeing the fruits both economically and technologically produced, let me say Singaporeans are weird enough," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network.

The challenge now is to be prepared for what Mr Lee calls the white space.

PM Lee said: "Because we cannot tell what we will need to do, and which way the science will go, and where the new opportunities will be all in advance. (But) it doesn't mean scientists get a blank cheque, they have to be held to account. But at the same time, we need to have enough scope and room for creative work and in the long term, to deliver results."

A major new thrust in R&D is to look for complex national challenges for Singapore. The National Research Foundation aims to make life better for Singaporeans and also create business opportunities which can be exploited abroad.

And for this, the National Innovation Challenge will be launched. Its first project will look into areas like tapping into the power of solar energy and developing cost-competitive energy solutions. - CNA/fa/ls