A*STAR 2017 Year-in-Review: Positioning Singapore as a Global-Asia Hub of Technology, Innovation and Enterprise

On 18 May 2018- A*STAR shared its Year-in-Review achievements; and how the agency is driving R&D outcomes for Singapore’s economy and society by catalysing innovation and propagating the digital transformation in our key industry sectors- and helping local enterprises become more productive and competitive.

In FY2017- A*STAR engaged in over 2-100 projects with companies- a third of these with local enterprises. These projects resulted in over $340 million of R&D spending. More significantly- R&D spending by local enterprises outpaced this increase- growing by around two thirds from $61 million to $102 million.

More local companies also took up A*STAR licenses- underscoring A*STAR’s efforts to help local enterprises grow their innovation capacity and commercialise innovative products and services. 75% of over 260 A*STAR licenses were taken up by local enterprises- compared to about 60% of 235 in FY2016.

A*STAR also announced the Advanced Micro-Foundry (AMF)- the first commercial micro foundry capable of high-mix low-volume manufacturing and specialising in silicon photonics- a game changer for future computing systems and advanced data centres. The new spin-off stems from A*STAR’s investment into silicon photonics R&D in the early 2000s.