Singapore-Australia Bilateral Programme on "Innovations in Food for Sustainability"

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia jointly announce the Singapore-Australia Bilateral Programme on "Innovations in Food for Sustainability" Call for Proposals. 

The programme aims to promote research collaboration between Singapore and Australia on “Innovations in Food for Sustainability” to develop opportunities and individual research projects in the following four thematic areas identified as priority areas:

• Production of new or novel ingredients: Fractionation and/or Precision Fermentation
• Nutrition and Health
• Consumer acceptance of Complementary Protein/Novel Foods
• Food Side Stream/Waste Valorisation

The programme aims to support research teams to:

• Develop new or novel ingredients to enable sustainable food production via fractionation and/or precision fermentation to help accelerate delivery to market; 
• Gain a greater understanding of the nutritional profiles of novel foods and identify and implement strategies to develop nutritionally balanced products, which may include hybrid and blended products, and facilitate consumer acceptance (e.g. addressing communicating innovation, risks and health benefits of novel foods and innovative technologies to consumers);
• Value add to by-products through food side stream/ waste valorisation and develop value added opportunities for industry;
• Engage with industry, government, community and other R&D organisations to achieve greater impact.
  

To be eligible for grant funding, applicants must propose a joint research project that includes the following:

• a CSIRO Principal Investigator; and
• a Singapore-based Principal Investigator holding a primary appointment of at least 75% in a local publicly funded institution and salaried by the institution 

In addition, the proposed project must focus on at least one of the programme’s priority areas and address at least one of the programme’s aims as stated above.

Collaboration with industry partner(s) is optional but strongly encouraged. Australia-based industry collaborators are not eligible to receive funding directly and indirectly. Singapore-based collaborators are not eligible to receive funding directly and indirectly unless specifically provided for in the grant and approved by Grantor.

For Singapore-based applicants:

Call opens: 8 April 2024 (Monday)

Submission Deadline: 31 May 2024 (Friday), 5pm SGT / 8pm AEDT

Applicants are to refer to the ‘Innovations in Food for Sustainability’ grant call guidelines (Annex C).

Applicants are to complete all sections of the application form (Annex D). Only complete proposals are accepted for review, evaluation and assessment for award. The implementing agencies (A*STAR and CSIRO) may seek additional information to justify, elaborate or clarify aspects of the research approach described in the proposal during the review process. 

Please appoint one member (either based in Australia or Singapore) from your team to submit the application form and other necessary application materials in PDF format via A-STAR_FNCC@hq.a-star.edu.sg. Only 1 submission per project team is permitted. 

Application Form must be submitted with the appropriate endorsement by the respective Host Institution (by the Chief Executive Director, Executive Director, the Director of Research or equivalent) to ensure that organisational support is clearly associated with the proposed research plan.

We will be hosting an information session, and applicants who wish to apply for funding are encouraged to attend to gain more insights into the application details and timeline.

For more details on the grant call, please refer to the enclosed application materials.

• Annex A: A*STAR Grant Terms and Conditions
• Annex B: A*STAR Grant Guidelines
• Annex C: ‘Innovations in Food for Sustainability’ Grant Call Guidelines
• Annex D: Application Form
• Grant Call Introduction Slides

For further queries, please feel free to write to: 

• Singapore-based applicants: A-STAR_FNCC@hq.a-star.edu.sg
  
• Australia-based applicants: IF4S@csiro.au