To facilitate the movement from laboratory to boardroom, the University continues to actively promote a culture of entrepreneurship in its community of students, faculty and alumni, through education, research, funding and incubation of start-ups. Enrolment in entrepreneurship-related courses jumped 116 per cent over a one-year period from the last academic year 2004-2005. At NUS Incubator Centre, alumni comprise the largest cluster of NUS stakeholders utilising the facility.
The University won in the year the Enterprising Agency Award and Innovator Award presented by the Prime Minister’s Office for its effort in championing radical innovations and taking the lead in piloting trials. Presented under Enterprise Challenge 2005 , the award was for the development of a novel resorbable bioscaffold by researchers from the Faculty of Dentistry working in collaboration with industry partner, Rapid Tech Pte Ltd. The bioscaffold is able to biodegrade within six months without compromising the strength and support that are needed in the crucial few months of implantation to allow bones to regenerate. Funds from the award will allow the team to translate the technology into clinical trials paving the way for more successful implant and reconstructive surgeries.
In the build up of its entrepreneurial dimension, the University rationalised in the year the various activities of licensing, intellectual property management and technology transfer under the umbrella of the newly-formed Industry Liaison Office.
The Office took off to a propitious start with the launch of NUS-developed dengue fever diagnostic kits by Veredus Laboratories Pte Ltd, a local medical diagnostics company. Two master research agreements were also signed with General Motors and Sony Electronics ( Singapore).
Following the success of the University’s Start-Up@Singapore Business Plan Competition which has spawned more than 50 companies since its inception in 1999, the University followed through with another competition to add impetus to the cultivation of an entrepreneurial outlook amongst its stakeholders. Organised jointly with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Idea to Product Competition (I2P) was modelled after the University of Texas’ I2P International Competition and was the first to be held in Asia.
Students were particularly active in starting up new enterprises in this period. Of the 19 start-ups that took off in the year, 16 were student ventures. One of the most promising is based on a breakthrough by a multi-disciplinary team of engineering and dentistry graduate students. Together with the Centre for Scientific Enterprise, UK, they have set up Biomers Pte Ltd. The medical device company’s first products are the world’s first translucent orthodontic wires with no compromise to their efficacy. Clinical studies are set to begin in academic year 2006– 2007 and the results will be used to secure the approval of the Food and Drug Administration for sale of the company’s products in the US.
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