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Agency overview | |
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Formed | 11 January 1991 (as National Science and Technology Board) 5 January 2002 (as Agency for Science, Technology and Research) |
Jurisdiction | Government of Singapore |
Headquarters | 1 Fusionopolis Way, #20-10 Connexis, Singapore 138632 |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | Ministry of Trade and Industry |
Website | www |
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore.
The agency supports R&D that is aligned to areas of competitive advantage and national needs for Singapore. These span the four technology domains of Manufacturing, Trade and Connectivity, Human Health and Potential, Urban Solutions and Sustainability, and Smart Nation and Digital Economy set out under the nation's five-year R&D plan (RIE2025). [1]
The agency's research institutes are located mostly in Biopolis and Fusionopolis. The total strength of the A*STAR community, including scientists and researchers, technical and non-technical staff, and industry development and commercialization staff is approximately at 5,400.
A*STAR was established on 11 January 1991. [2] It was formerly known as the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) until January 2002.
On 29 October 2003, Singapore's hub for the biomedical sciences, Biopolis, was opened. A*STAR's biomedical research institutes and centres are located at Biopolis, along with other corporate research labs by companies such as Novartis, Danone, Abbott and Procter & Gamble. Over the years, the biomedical sector in Singapore has expanded in tandem with Biopolis. In 2000, the sector contributed 10 per cent to Singapore's manufacturing value-add. In April 2017, biomedical manufacturing was the second largest contributor to total manufacturing value-add at 19.6 per cent. [3]
Fusionopolis One was launched on 17 October 2008, adding a second R&D hub on physical sciences and engineering. The opening of Fusionopolis came as Singapore recorded its highest Gross Domestic Expenditure in R&D (GERD) of S$6.3 billion at that time in 2007. The amount was an unprecedented increase of 26 per cent from the 2006 GERD, and double the amount of S$3 billion recorded in 2000. [4]
On 19 October 2015, Fusionopolis Two was officially opened at the one-north precinct. Together with Fusionopolis One which was launched in 2008, the Fusionopolis cluster integrates all of A*STAR's science and engineering research capabilities and fosters close collaboration between the private and public sectors. The co-location of A*STAR's research institutes at Fusionopolis and Biopolis brings together researchers and industry partners to work closely on projects. [5]
The team from A*STAR helped set up and maintain the GISAID database storing and sharing COVID-19 virus data, including quality checking functions for genomic sequences sent in by various countries. [6]
The agency is made up of:
Between 2011 – 2015, A*STAR worked on 8,965 industry projects, almost six times that of the previous five-year tranche of 1,547. This has resulted in more than S$1.6 billion in industry R&D spending. A*STAR also signed 1,030 licensing agreements over the same period, of which 70 per cent were signed with local SMEs. [8]
By aligning its research with industry demand, the agency has seeded collaborations with multi-national companies such as Rolls-Royce, Applied Materials, Inc., Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
In 2014, P&G opened its S$250 million Singapore Innovation Centre at Biopolis to support the company's product development in the areas of beauty, home care, as well as personal health and grooming, with research done here being incorporated into producing products for brands such as Pantene and SK-II. [9]
In October 2015, Applied Materials announced the opening of a new joint R&D laboratory with A*STAR. The five-year agreement included the opening of a S$150 million lab that would be located at Fusionopolis Two. The lab's research would focus primarily on developing advanced semiconductor technologies for use in future generations of logic and memory chips, found in smartphones and laptops. The collaboration with A*STAR marked the second time that Applied Materials has chosen to conduct product development and commercialisation activities outside its Santa Clara headquarters in the US. [10]
To prepare Singapore's manufacturing industry for the future economy, A*STAR outlined its Future of Manufacturing (FoM) roadmap and initiatives at the Committee of Supply Debate 2017. [11]
A*STAR has implemented the Model Factory Initiative at two locations: ARTC and SIMTech.
A*STAR's ARTC would jointly conduct manpower training sessions with consulting firm McKinsey & Company to groom talent for jobs in advanced manufacturing technologies. These sessions cover areas such as predictive maintenance, digitised performance management, procurement and supply chain. [12]
SIMTech also signed MOUs with the Trade Associations and Chambers, the Singapore Precision Engineering and Technology Association (SPETA), and the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), to provide their members with training to deepen their manufacturing capabilities for the Future Economy. [13]
Food and Nutrition is an emerging sector in Singapore. One of Singapore's successes between 2011 and 2015 was in growing an R&D ecosystem for the F&N and consumer care sector. This has led to the creation of close to 1,000 new R&D jobs. [14] Leading nutrition companies such as Nestlé (Nestle Research Centre) and Danone (Nutricia Research) have either established new facilities or expanded existing ones in Biopolis, and are working closely with A*STAR to conduct R&D to develop healthier and safer products. [15]
Singapore's first publicly funded drug candidate, ETC-159, which was discovered and developed through a collaboration with Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, advanced into Phase 1 clinical trials in July 2015. This drug targets a number of cancers, including colorectal, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, which contribute to a significant proportion of Singapore's cancer burden. [16]
A*STAR further announced that its second locally developed cancer drug, ETC-206, which targets blood cancers, has advanced to first-in-man trials in 2016. [17] A*STAR would also be building a centre for large molecules, known as the Experimental Biologics Centre (EBC). [18]
In 2016, A*STAR's commercialisation arm, A*ccelerate (formerly ETPL) opened the first-of-its-kind "open innovation lab" and the incubator known as A*START Central with 10 medtech, biotech and Internet start-ups on board. It can support up to 25 start-ups with conducive infrastructure, mentorship, funding and access to business networks. [19]
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the country. It offers degree programmes in a wide range of disciplines at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including in the sciences, medicine and dentistry, design and environment, law, arts and social sciences, engineering, business, computing, and music.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headquartered in Delhi, India. It was formed in 1958 by the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of the Indian Ordnance Factories with the Defence Science Organisation. Subsequently, Defence Research & Development Service (DRDS) was constituted in 1979 as a service of Group 'A' Officers / Scientists directly under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence.
Biopolis is a research and development centre for biomedical sciences in Singapore. It is located at one-north in Buona Vista, and is close to the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Polytechnic, the Singapore Institute of Technology, the National University Hospital, the Singapore Science Park, Ministry of Education, ESSEC Business School, INSEAD Business School, and Fusionopolis. This campus is dedicated to providing space for biomedical research and development activities and promoting peer review and collaboration among the private and public scientific community.
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Miranda Yap was a professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the National University of Singapore, and the Executive Director of the Bioprocessing Technology Institute at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore (A*STAR).
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