Being based in Singapore, a vibrant and cosmopolitan
business hub, NUS recognises that innovation
and entrepreneurship propel the creation and
realisation of new ideas and businesses. We create a
favourable environment to develop an innovative and
entrepreneurial spirit among our students, faculty
and alumni, and help them venture across the sea
of opportunities.
Towards this end, NUS actively raises our profile among external stakeholders
and the entrepreneurial community through a host of prestigious events.
Topping the list is InnovFest, an annual event aimed at boosting investments,
technology transfer and networking within Asia's finance, business and
technology communities organised by NUS Enterprise. Taking centre stage
at the 2011 event were:
•
The Technology Commercialisation Forum (TCF), which attracted some
300 industry stakeholders and technology transfer professionals and
shined a spotlight on key emerging technologies from Asia. Among them
was a revolutionary anti-malaria detection technique developed by
Dr Kevin Tan and his team from the Department of Microbiology. The team
has since formed a spin-out company, Biolynx which was awarded a grant
from SPRING Singapore, and is licensing the technology from NUS. At
TCF 2011, NUS Enterprise also gave out the Innovation/Entrepreneurship
Practicum awards to 15 teams. This award provides up to $10,000 per
project to support NUS student teams with innovative ideas to develop
and pilot test them.
•
The Enterprise Connection, a networking dinner for the entrepreneurship
community where the NUS Enterprise Global Entrepreneurial Leadership
Speaker Series was launched. Kicking off the series was Facebook
co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who inspired the audience to follow their
passion and be unfazed by failure. The Innovation & Enterprise Award,
jointly organised by NUS Enterprise and the NUS Society, was also given
out that evening. The Award recognises individuals and companies within
the NUS community that have made significant accomplishments in
entrepreneurship and innovation. At the award ceremony, Mr Tan Min
Liang, CEO and Chief Gamer of Razer, and Dr Steven Zhou, Founder
& Director of MXR Corporation Pte Ltd, received the Outstanding NUS
Innovator Award.
•
Echelon (Singapore Satellite), where 10 Singapore-based start-up
companies competed against 30 other companies from Malaysia,
Indonesia and Hong Kong to pitch their plans and products to a panel of
judges. PlayMoolah, an educational platform founded by two alumni from
the NUS Overseas Colleges which teaches children financial education,
came out tops at the Echelon (Singapore Satellite) event. It later went on
to win the Start-up Launchpad contest at Echelon, Asia's best and biggest
Launchpad event, with 11 regional start-ups pitching their wares.
Grooming Entrepreneurs
Through diverse programmes and initiatives, NUS nurtures an entrepreneurial
mindset among our students and helps them develop the relevant skill sets for
commercial success. We immerse them in the local and global entrepreneurial
scene, equipping them with a macro perspective that hones their competitive
edge in successfully starting and running entrepreneurial ventures.
The NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) and the innovative Local Enterprise
Achiever Development (iLEAD) programmes are our two major entrepreneur-grooming
initiatives. A total of 195 students took part in these programmes
in the Academic Year (AY) 2010/2011.
With the NOC programme into its 10th year, the alumni community is
thriving in various entrepreneurship aspects. For instance, Asia-Pacific's leading
media intelligence company, Media Monitors, announced the acquisition of
a majority stake in Brandtology, a global leader in online and social media
intelligence co-founded by NOC alumnus Kelly Choo.
Another programme is the national-level Start-Up@Singapore (S@S)
Business Plan Competition 2011, organised by NUS Entrepreneurship Society
(NES). The competition attracted 410 teams and over 1,000 participants
from over 17 countries. S@S, which serves as a springboard for aspiring
entrepreneurs, funds the business ideas of the winners and seeks to provide
networking opportunities and technical resources. This year, NES expanded its
bilateral one-week entrepreneurial student exchange programmes to include
more overseas universities in China, Taiwan and Chile.
NUS will also promote and incubate innovation-based social businesses
in Singapore through a partnership between NUS Entrepreneurship Centre
and the Grameen Creative Lab (GCL). This is the first time that the GCL has
partnered with a Singapore-based organisation. GCL@NUS will leverage on
GCL's global resources and networks as well as NUS' innovations and strong
incubation ecosystem. Its inaugural social business week, held from 14 to 18
March 2011, attracted over 200 participants.
Strong Funding Support
Apart from sourcing for dedicated mentors and providing comprehensive
incubation facilities, NUS seeks to establish funding schemes and R&D
resources to support our start-up companies.
We helped two incubatees, Stream Media and 2359Media, successfully
raise a total of $1.8 million from SingTel Innov8 and the Technology Incubation
Scheme earlier this year. Stream Media created MoVend, a seamless payment
platform which makes content consumption simpler to the end users, while
2359Media is a turnkey mobile publishing platform which allows content
publishers and advertisers to distribute content easily across multiple
smartphone platforms.
We also assisted seven new companies – Genie Agent, GozoLab, Sheer
Industries, Virtual Sandbox, Unboxs, WCSH and JolliDeals – to tap on various
funding and incubation support.
In the year of review, 15 new companies were hosted at the NUS Enterprise
Incubator. There are now over 80 NUS Enterprise portfolio companies.
Forging Industry Partnerships
Besides grooming entrepreneurs and nurturing promising fledgling companies,
NUS engages the industry, sourcing for projects, inventions and licensing
opportunities with spin-off potential.
In the year of review, the NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO) handled 213
industry and research collaborations, worth a total of $152 million. In all,
164 patents were filed and 40 patents granted. NUS received 305 invention
disclosures, a significant increase of 47 per cent over the previous year.
Among the partnerships forged in the AY 2010/2011 is a strategic
research alliance with Rolls Royce Pte Ltd in the field of gas turbines and other
engines and power sources. We also tied up with Clearbridge VitalSigns, a
medical device start-up company that will develop and commercialise a novel,
ultra-low powered electrocardiogram chip.
In addition, ILO is negotiating an exclusive licence agreement with AyoxxA
Pte Ltd, an award-winning bioassay platform provider. The NUS spin-off company
is a shining success story, attracting strong interest from angel and venture
capital investors. In 2011, it was the only Asian winner in the "Best of Biotech"
business plan competition held in Austria. AyoxxA was awarded a SPRING TECS
(Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme) grant of $500,000.
Rounding up the year of review in entrepreneurship developments, NUS
entered into an Intellectual Property (IP) Pipeline Licensing agreement with
Sumitomo Chemical's Cambridge Display Technology (CDT). A world leader in
the field of OLED displays and lightings, CDT provides NUS leverage to address
the most critical scientific challenges with the broadest impact, and the best
vehicle to commercialise these innovations.
This agreement ushers in a new partnership model for NUS. It provides
CDT with an IP stream from innovative research in fundamental P-OLED
and organic semiconductors conducted by the NUS Organic Nano Device
Laboratory, with options to take licences in existing and new IPs in the field.
CDT's commercialisation of the IPs will in turn generate a royalty stream back
to NUS.
