Collaboration Opportunities
A*STAR engages the industry in R&D to drive innovation and advance technology that may be translated to products and services to yield economic benefit. We achieve this through seizing collaboration opportunities with industry in various ways.
Consortia
Industry consortia programmes leverage on the span of technical expertise at the SERC Research Institutes to help the local industry move up the value chain. Such programmes encompass direct basic and applied R&D across the SERC research institutes, and provide the conduit as well as opportunities for local companies to work with industry giants via research collaborations or membership programmes. Pre-competitive R&D is carried out in a consortium setting where members will benefit from the R&D of common platform technology challenges.
Key industry consortia programmes
Joint-Research
Joint-Research programmes are one-to-one R&D collaborations between a private company with A*STAR research institutes (RIs) that help to enhance the technology edge of the company by the technology transfer from the RI.
For advancement of technology, cutting-edge platform technologies, for example, are critical to support biomedical research by both industry and academia. A*STAR research entities have partnered with leading industry players to increase access state-of-the-art technology to advance their research. Such a partnership can serve as a learning platform for industry to gain new insights from users in the research community, which may facilitate the advancement of their technology and the development of new protocols and techniques.
Examples include the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) – Nikon Imaging Centre, and the Clinical Imaging Research Centre – a joint venture between NUS and A*STAR with industry partner, Siemens.
Lab-in-RI
The Lab-in-RI is an A*STAR initiative in which the research institutes provide partners with infrastructure and framework at an early stage of their R&D projects. For the partnering companies, this has the advantage of implementing their plans under favorable conditions, to allow the companies to jumpstart their R&D activities in Singapore before making major capital investments.
Technology & Business Incubation
Exploit Technologies, the strategic marketing and commercialisation arm of A*STAR, plays a proactive role to support and advance R&D in collaboration with industry. It achieves this through IP awareness and protection and incubating both technologies and businesses, which we help to bring to market through licensing of A*STAR’s intellectual property and spinning off high potential companies.
Technologies are incubated through Exploit Technologies’ Commercialisation of Technology (COT) funding programme, where we invest upfront and take development risks of up to S$1m per project. COT is an internal gap funding mechanism for A*STAR’s research institutes to carry out technology development and refinement based on their inventions and proof-of-concept prototypes over a period of three to 12 months.
Through the COT programme, we are creating a pool of market-ready technologies for commercial applications, refinements for mass production and enhancements. In business incubation, Exploit Technologies collaborates with A*STAR’s research institutes, where we identify new technology areas early in the research value chain to develop application driven, multi-disciplinary Flagship Projects and drive these with commercialisation outcomes firmly in mind. We expect some of the Flagship Projects to have the potential to grow new industrial sectors.
Technology Incubation
- Technology Intelligence – conduct due diligence and identify technical specifications required by industry
- Engineering Development – review production processes, yield improvement, bill of materials and system integration and all related engineering issues
- Commercialisation of Technology (COT) Fund – available of gap funding to translate technology disclosures to licensable IP
Business Incubation
- Competitive intelligence – analyze the competition landscape, financial performance of competitors, benchmarking
- Product Roadmap and Development – target market segment, product specifications, product testing and roll-out plan
- Marketing Strategy – market development including industry forum, identify potential customers for collaboration or evaluation
- Business Strategies & Financial Modeling – prepare business plan, financial analysis and value proposition
- Flagship Funding – available funding ($3m‐$5m) for business incubation
Exploit Technologies' commercialisation efforts have seen tangible outcomes. We are now managing a portfolio of close to 3,000 active patents, have granted more than 250 licences for A*STAR's technologies, and created a portfolio of two dozen spin-off companies. Estimated business revenue to be generated by licensees from sales of products and provision of services using or incorporating A*STAR's technologies is projected to be over S$500M. And the total market value, both realised and unrealised, created through A*STAR startups amounts to more than S$100 million.
To find out more about COT/Flagship, email: tech-offer@exploit-tech.com or visit the ETPL website 
Last Updated On 21 October 2009