NUS - National University of Singapore

INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT

We continue to actively engage with industry, sourcing for projects and inventions as well as licensing opportunities with spin-off potential.

Over 157 industry and research collaborations took place in the year of review, totalling a project value of S$118 million. A significant example is the award of a S$20 million grant by the Singapore Economic Development Board for the development of the S$63 million Singapore-Peking-Oxford Research Enterprise (SPORE) for Water Eco-Efficiency. A partnership between NUS, the University of Oxford and Peking University, the five-year initiative aims to promote education, research and industry collaboration on water and environmental technologies.

A total of 84 patents was filed and 28 patents granted in the review period. We also received 208 invention disclosures, registering a substantial increase of 79 per cent over the previous year.

The University’s Industry Liaison Office was appointed as the Technology Transfer Office for the Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and the Media Development Authority in 2009, reinforcing NUS’ position as a leader in managing, developing and licensing Intellectual Property (IP).

NURTURING ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSETS

A total of 208 students embarked on the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) and innovative Local Enterprise Achiever Development (iLEAD) programmes in the period of review. NOC’s Experience India! Programme especially received an overwhelming response from the student community, with an unprecedented 39 students departing for India to intern at start-ups, venture firms, local Indian companies as well as international organisations. The students were involved in projects spanning IT, biotech, entrepreneurship development, media and advertising, rural business process outsourcing and ecotourism.

The national-level Start-Up@Singapore (S@S) Business Plan Competition 2010, organised by the NUS Entrepreneurship Society, attracted a total of 270 teams and 780 participants. The winner of S@S 2009, Zimplistic Inventions, won the third prize in the highly competitive Intel® + UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge. The competition is a joint project between Intel Corporation and the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UC Berkeley that brings together entrepreneurial teams from world class engineering and business schools. This notable achievement demonstrates the quality of winners of S@S competitions.