As the research and development industry has transformed “greatly”, the structure and processes of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) will be overhauled, so that the research agency can better take research ideas into the industry and create economic value and jobs in Singapore.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean yesterday, with more details to come at the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.

The restructuring will also serve the goals of the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE), said Mr Teo, who spoke to reporters yesterday after a visit to A*Star’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC).

“The CFE is also looking at taking us into a knowledge-based economy, so the R&D sector, creating new sectors, new industrial sectors of the economy, this is a very important part of the CFE,” he said.

The committee published its report last week after a year’s work, outlining seven strategies to grow Singapore’s economy for the next decade.

Sectors such as urban solutions, healthcare and digital economy were among those highlighted as areas to focus on.

Mr Teo said agencies such as the National Research Foundation and A*Star will have to see how many of the ideas in the R&D institutions can be taken into the industry to create economic value, and the restructuring will enable A*Star to do this better in the coming years.

A*Star has begun a review to carry out the restructuring. Formerly the National Science and Technology Board, the agency was renamed A*Star in 2001.

It now comprises the Biomedical Research Council, which manages 10 research institutes, and the Science & Engineering Research Council, which manages seven research institutes and other centres and facilities.

It also has its A*Star Graduate Academy, the Joint Council, which supports cross-organisational collaborative research, and Exploit Technologies, its commercialisation arm which promotes and commercialises A*Star’s research.

When asked to provide more details of the restructuring, A*Star chairman Lim Chuan Poh said the Government is now focusing on four areas: Health and biomedical sciences, advanced manufacturing and engineering, services and digital economy, and urban solutions and sustainability.

Noting the way research is organised has changed, in terms of a “domain approach” to governing research, Mr Lim said: “Once you organise into domains ... you bring the industry partners, the agencies into the same equation, so that whatever you do in upstream research can have a receptacle platform for it, to be taken to either benefit patients, the economy or the wider Singaporean society.”

There is also a need for multi-disciplinary approach to bring about impactful research, which the restructuring will take into account.

“If you want to do very impactful research, you need to bring different disciplines together, bring multiple institutions together to ensure that different entities along the innovation value chain participate with the same orientation on the problem you want to solve,” Mr Lim said.

Asked about a timeline and whether the plans will affect existing research projects, a spokesman would only say the restructuring will align A*Star more closely to Research Innovation Enterprise (RIE) 2020, a S$19 billion plan to support Singapore’s R&D efforts over five years from 2016, and the CFE’s goals.

“This will allow us to better deliver on our mission of creating economic growth and improving the lives of Singaporeans.”

Yesterday, A*Star also elaborated on its latest efforts in drug innovation, via its drug screening platform Singapore Screening Centre at the ETC.

Efforts in developing ETC-159, Singapore’s first publicly-funded cancer drug, will move into the next phase in August.

During this phase, over 30 patients will be selected for a clinical trial, said ETC chief executive officer Alex Matter. The trial will look for relevant biomarkers and monitor patients’ clinical symptoms.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Tan Weizhen

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