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Review of Research (1 July 2006 – 30 June 2007)

The vibrancy of NUS research culture was demonstrated in the 1,730 papers published in international journals in the year and the completion of 664 projects. A total of 113 research collaborations with a total project value of $54 million was signed and 672 new projects took off in the same period.

Excellence in research continues not only in the Faculties and Schools but also in the University’s institutes and centres where researchers undertake flagship research programmes and human capital for research is nurtured and developed.

Spurred on by a no-walls culture with no disciplinary and physical impediments, the University continued to establish in the year strong multi-disciplinary programmes in areas where potential peaks of excellence can be achieved. Strategically, seven areas have been identified which will tap on the University’s teaching, research and collaborative resources to achieve the desired impact. They are in the areas of Environment & Water Technology, Interactive & Digital Media, Translational Medicine, Quantum Information, Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Asian Studies and Biomedical Sciences.

Significantly, these research foci are aligned to areas of development targeted as strategic to Singapore’s growth in the medium and long term. The setting up of the Research Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information Science and Technology (RCE in QIST) is one such alignment. It is the first of a few Research Centres of Excellence, co-funded by the National Research Foundation and Ministry of Education, to focus on world-class investigator-led research that will facilitate Singapore’s strategic growth by delivering research of global impact. Led by Professor Artur Ekert, world-renowned co-inventor of quantum cryptography, its multi-disciplinary team of researchers will work on how light and atoms can be used to store information.

NUS’ provision of R & D to support Singapore’s strategic growth areas during the review period was most apparent in three areas:

1. INTER ACTIVE & DIGITAL MEDIA (IDM). NUS threw the weight of its expertise in the interactive and digital media behind the local industry to help bring it to world-class standards. It aims to achieve this by leveraging on technology, medicine, law, architecture and the arts and social sciences to come up with leading-edge research applicable not only to entertainment but also to education, tourism, healthcare, homeland security, and arts and culture.
   
   In this capacity, the University set up in the year the Interactive and Digital Media Institute to undertake application-inspired basic research relevant to the critical and future needs of Singapore’s IDM industry. The institute is a complex of eight labs. An outpost of the institute, the NUS Hollywood Lab, has also been established in Los Angeles, right in the heart of the world’s entertainment capital and adjacent to the School of Cinema and Television, University of Southern California.



2. ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES. NUS directed its support towards developing Singapore into a global hydrohub. The University set up in the year a host of research institutes that impacts Singapore’s research and educational initiatives to address critical environmental topics such as air, land & water resources, human & environmental health and energy. The NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI) was established to be a key player in achieving these goals.
   
   In the area of water technology, the University is a partner of the GE Water & Process Technologies Global R & D Centre which was set up to work on water treatment and systems integration, fundamental chemical and membrane applications and ion-exchange technology.
   
   The Singapore-Delft Water Alliance (SDWA) will see NUS working together with the Public Utilities Board and the Netherlands’ Delft Hydraulics to focus on research, education and technology transfer relating to water management, hydraulic engineering and urban water cycles.
   
   In its reach to bring Singapore to the forefront of water and environment technologies, NUS Nano-Bioengineering Laboratory (working together with the University of Ottawa) received funding from the Environment and Water Industry Development Council to develop high-performance, energy-saving nanofibre membranes for water filtration and treatment.



3. BIOMEDICINE. NUS’ main thrust in this area was to help Singapore’s biomedical industry move from the laboratory bench to the bedside. The University opened in the year, a $40 million Centre for Life Sciences (CeLS) to initiate and spur on basic, translational and clinical research programmes and education in the areas of Cancer, Cardiovascular Biology, Immunology, Neurobiology and Ageing.
   
   Together with RAND Health, a division of Rand Corporation, the University set up in the year the NUS Centre for Health Services as a national resource to develop research and education programmes on which high quality, credible data are generated for healthcare providers and policy makers.
   
   The University is a member of The Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium (SGCC) – Improving Outcomes for Our Patients project which was the first to be awarded $25 million from the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), Ministry of Health, under its Translational Clinical Research Flagship Programme. The latter aims to establish Singapore as a leader in a number of strategic disease-orientated areas. NUS will contribute to the work of SGCC by focusing on improving early detection to enable diagnosis at an early stage.

REVIEW OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Innovations and inventions need to be realised in the real world for the University to contribute to the knowledge-based economy. NUS facilitates this through its entrepreneurial dimension.

The University actively promotes a culture of bringing research findings from the lab to the market place through a comprehensive range of initiatives covering education, research, start-up funding and incubation nurturing. Efforts in this direction have been promising. tenCube Pte Ltd, a company, led by Darius Cheung, an alumnus of NUS College in Silicon Valley, released its first product WaveSecure, an anti-theft software for mobile phones, in the review year. It won the 7th Start-up@Singapore Competition, the Best Innovation Finals Candidate at the APEC-TIC100 Workshop, the RedHerring Asia 100 Award and the Top Ten Wireless Innovations in Asia Pacific from Frost & Sullivan.

The Design Incubator Centre, located at the NUS School of Design and Environment, is the University’s newest incubator centre that was opened in the year.

The review period saw the filing of 122 patents and granting of 46 patents. Ninety-seven technological disclosures were received. Six companies received funding from the NUS Venture Seed Fund and Funds for University Student Entrepreneurs (FUSE). The NUS Business Incubator hosted 25 start-ups.

Breakthroughs that successfully made the transition from laboratory to board-room in the year included the United Membrane Technology Pte Ltd, which specialises in membrane product manufacturing with membrane system design and integration.

A technology discovered by NUS researchers that extracts the DNA of timber, to authenticate the legality of exported wood is being developed to its full commercial potential with Certisource, a timber verification company.

wizQubes, a brainwave from the University’s Mixed Reality Lab, which revolutionises children’s storytelling by pioneering a mixed reality application that allows the reader to view and interact with the storyline in full 3-dimension, made its first appearance on the shelves of major bookstores in the year. It is one of many increasingly made-in-Singapore creations that has its origins in the NUS lab.

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