Prime Minister's Office (National Research Foundation)

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Gan Kim Yong): The National Research Foundation (NRF) seeks to build strong research expertise and a dynamic Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) ecosystem that advances Singapore’s competitiveness and drives societal and economic impact for Singapore and the world. This will be achieved through our RIE 2030 efforts.

Through steady investments in science and technology, NRF has built a strong research and talent base, alongside a promising innovation and enterprise system. We are leveraging deep scientific capabilities and intellectual property to catalyse further research and development (R&D).

The benefits from RIE investments extend beyond the economy to society at large. For example, our National Precision Medicine Programme aims to develop more targeted treatments based on the genetic make-up of our patients and population. Technologies such as floating solar photovoltaics and building-integrated photovoltaics allow us to optimise renewable energy generation from our limited land size.

We will also deepen international research partnerships which reinforce Singapore’s position as a trusted node of technology, innovation and enterprise. These partnerships extend beyond extensive research collaborations at the individual and institutional levels, to joint dialogue platforms like the Singapore-France Joint Committee on Science and Innovation, and collaborations with multiple overseas universities under the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) initiative.

The Government has consistently invested about 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in RIE activities, with $28 billion allocated over five years for RIE 2025. These investments focus on areas of high impact and strategic importance, including advanced manufacturing and engineering, health and biomedical sciences, sustainability and urban solutions, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum and digital technologies.

RIE 2025 is making good progress. The quality of our talent and research has continued to rise, as evidenced by our Field-Weighted Citation Impact, which grew from 1.47 in 2014 to 1.74 in 2024, 74% above the global average. There are over 20 corporate laboratories and Centres of Innovation and business expenditure on R&D increased from $5.5 billion in 2018 (1% of GDP) to $8.1 billion (1.2% of GDP) in 2022. Venture capital investments in early-stage deep tech deals have more than tripled from $478 million in 2020 to $1.56 billion in 2023.

Building on RIE 2025, RIE 2030 will sharpen our focus on achieving transformative outcomes for the economy and national strategic priorities.

RIE2030 will launch a new wave of large-scale, cross-cutting R&D programmes, in the form of RIE Flagships and RIE Grand Challenges. These will target selected economic sectors and national strategic priorities respectively. We will take a systematic approach to define desired economic and strategic outcomes, identify major bottlenecks where R&D is needed and develop a coordinated portfolio of research programmes to realise our goals. These programmes will draw on relevant research and translational capabilities across Singapore, including through partnerships with private sector players.

In parallel, NRF will continue to invest in talent and basic research, while strengthening Singapore’s AI and compute research capabilities. We will strengthen our portfolio of research grants, fellowships and investigatorships to nurture local researchers, attract top-tier and promising research talent and enhance links between our researchers and the global community. We will also establish a long-term plan to maintain and upgrade our essential research infrastructure.

Building on RIE 2025’s achievements, RIE 2030 will focus on leveraging our research strengths to achieve greater societal and economic impact, while continuing to keep our basic research capabilities, talent and infrastructure at the cutting-edge.