Highlighting the Best of A*star

The next fi ve years looks set to be an exciting time for research and development in Singapore. The nation has announced a budget of S$16.1 billion, or one percent of its expected GDP, for public-sector R&D activities over the next fi ve years. This budget is 20 percent more than the previous tranche of S$13.6 billion for 2006–2010, and heralds a new age of close working relationships among institutes of higher learning, hospitals, public research institutes and public-sector agencies in the pursuit of foundational research in various disciplines. Over the next fi ve years, A*STAR will be promoting the development of innovative platforms to better link research with industry, fostering better integration of the R&D community especially along the innovation value chain, providing stronger support for the commercialization of basic research, and attracting and developing scientifi c talent at home and from abroad. Essentially, Singapore's next phase of R&D will be about 'integrating for impact' while continuing to 'seed for surprises'. This focus is timely—the R&D landscape has become more mature, with gross expenditure on R&D rising from 1.9% of GDP in 2000 to 2.7% of GDP in 2008, and the ratio of private to public investment in R&D rising from 1.7 to 2.5 over the same period. Indeed, scientifi c R&D has become fi rmly established as a key pillar of Singapore's economy, and the fi ndings of research scientists and engineers here have formed a pipeline for commercialization and economic activities in the years to come. Having built up a spectrum of capabilities in biomedical and physical sciences and engineering, the research community has never been in a better position to leverage the opportunities created for collaborative, interdisciplinary, innovative and impactful research. Singapore's eff orts to align its R&D with the needs of industry are further enhanced by the co-location of public and private laboratories in the Biopolis and Fusionopolis complexes within the One-North precinct, and by the close proximity of the institutes of higher learning and hospitals. The ability to integrate capabilities eff ectively to achieve meaningful impact is our value proposition to industry. Already, major players such as Roche and GSK have announced multi-million dollar investments in translational research hubs in Singapore to accelerate the translation of basic R&D fi ndings into clinical cures. A*STAR's establishment of the Microelectromechanical Systems Consortium in 2010 on the heels of the rapidly growing Aerospace and Three-dimensional Through-silicon Via …