Human Potential - Prenatal / Early Childhood Grant Call 2026

Strengthen caregiving relationships, interactions and communication practices across parents, family members, educators and other caregivers, with demonstrated impact on children’s cognitive, language, socio emotional and self regulation outcomes in Singapore’s diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts.

Outcomes may include more responsive and sensitive caregiving, improved emotional co regulation, richer language and stimulation in everyday interactions, and more consistent caregiving approaches across home and preschool settings, particularly when children face socioeconomic or environmental adversity and during sensitive developmental periods in the prenatal to childhood years.

Enhance caregiver well being, caregiving capability and caregiving contexts (including family, community and organisational environments) to support high quality caregiving and improved developmental outcomes for children from prenatal to childhood.

Outcomes may include improved caregiver mental health, reduced stress and burnout, stronger caregiving self efficacy, better alignment with recommended caregiving practices, and more supportive home and school environments, with explicit attention to how socioeconomic pressures, work conditions and environmental constraints influence caregivers’ ability to provide stable, sensitive care at key developmental periods.

Optimise caregiving structures, configurations and alignment in multi caregiver systems (e.g. parents, grandparents, domestic helpers, childhood educators) to support caregiving stability, coherent routines and secure, developmentally supportive caregiving relationships, especially for children experiencing socioeconomic or environmental adversity.

Outcomes may include more stable and predictable caregiving arrangements, improved coordination across caregivers, stronger sense of security and connectedness for children, and reduced disruptions due to caregiver turnover in both homes and school settings, with a focus on sensitive developmental windows when caregiving instability may have lasting impact.

Strengthen caregiver led play and play based interactions across home and school linked environments to support children’s holistic development, including cognitive, language, socio emotional and self regulation outcomes, with explicit consideration of socioeconomic and environmental constraints.

Outcomes may include increased quality and frequency of developmentally supportive play interactions, improved adult–child interaction quality during play, richer opportunities for outdoor and active play within dense urban settings, and better continuity of play experiences between home and school across different communities, particularly during early sensitive periods when play is a primary context for learning and relationship building.