Friends and Colleagues

Good morning

Welcome to this inaugural A*STAR Scientific Conference.

It is really good to see so many of you here.

This conference aims to provide a platform to foster even greater research collaborations, especially across the two A*STAR research councils.

On Oct 17, the Prime Minister officially opened Fusionopolis.

Fusionopolis Phase 1 marks the start of the co-location of SERC RIs.

This co-location of SERC RIs as well as the proximity of Fusionopolis to Biopolis present enormous opportunities for our researchers from both councils to greatly expand the knowledge creation and innovation space for A*STAR.

This conference therefore serves to catalyse this cross council effort to leverage on the full spectrum of capabilities in A*STAR, from biomedical sciences, to physical sciences and engineering to initiate impactful research.

 

Inter-disciplinary research is not new to A*STAR.

Some of our A*STAR researchers have embarked on such collaborations and are already seeing the benefits as a result of the integration of their capabilities in different disciplines.

 

One example is in the area of stem cell research.

Researchers from BTI and SIMTech have jointly invented a Stem Cell Imaging System which can automatically measure the colony sizes, growth rates and estimated cell numbers of human embryonic stem cells on different culture platforms.

The invention is a breakthrough as it is difficult to measure the colony-like structure of human embryonic stem cells.

With this new bioimaging system, clearer monitoring of stem cell performance is enabled.

 

Another example is the Home-Based Medical Diagnosis System.

Researchers from I²R, IMRE and IMCB are collaborating with NTU to design and develop this diagnosis system that will make early detection and monitoring of selected illnesses and diseases at home possible.

The system comes in the form of a WC that automatically collects its user’s urine sample and analyses the sample through chemical reaction and bio-interaction.

 

The Stem Cell Imaging System and Home-Based Medical Diagnosis System are just two of several cross-council projects that have been initiated.

We need to do more and we are capable of doing more of such cross council collaborations.

We have the spectrum of capabilities, the organisation, the resources and the environment for us to do so.

However, we can better catalyse and facilitate this effort.

 

One obvious thing to do is to raise the researchers’ awareness of the resources and capabilities that are available within A*STAR in the two research councils and across all the RIs.

I still remember many of the RI EDs telling me that they had not realised the research that was carried out in the other RIs when we first had a ED level planning session last year.

Just in that one session, they were able to identify possible areas for cross council collaborations.

They therefore wanted to be better acquainted with the research work of the other RIs and they also asked for more time to be set aside for such sharing.

This raising of awareness through session such as this will greatly reduce the search effort and increase the opportunities for collaborations.

However, organised session such as the A*STAR wide scientific conference can only be done occasionally as it ties up a lot of researchers time.

It should therefore be used more as a showcase and intended to be catalytic.

This can and has been supplemented by more focussed workshops to bring smaller group of interested scientists together to share their research on particular topics.

 

In addition, we will also need a more efficient method for scientists to seek out each other.

For example, the Home-Based Medical Diagnosis System began with Dr Zhou Xiaoqun from I²R seeing the potential of the project in helping kidney patients to monitor their condition.

However, she was able to access the Singapore Researcher Data Base, find out about existing research projects in the RIs, and also patents filed via ETPL.

Through that, she was able to compile a shortlist of people she wanted to work with and approached them accordingly.

Dr Zhou has found a reasonably efficient progress to do her search for potential partners.

I am therefore pleased to announce that we will be launching the revamped Singapore Researchers Database today.

I was told that this will be an improvement over the previous system.

 

The SRDB, as it will be known, is an active directory of researchers currently working in Singapore.

This also includes clinicians who are Principal Investigators of peer-reviewed grants or Research Group or Laboratory Leaders in Singapore-based research institutions.

 

The SRDB serves multiple purposes.

First, it is a showcase of Singapore's expertise and capabilities in the various research areas.

Second, with updated information of researchers and their areas of interest readily accessible, the SRDB seeks to reduce the search effort in looking for suitable partners in research collaborations.

In this regard, please feel free to provide your feedback so that you can help improve the SRDB to help yourself and the entire research community.

Third, it serves as a useful resource for students to contact researchers for information or advice.

This last element is important if we want to foster an environment that promotes and encourages pursuit of research as a career among the young.

 

Like the SRDB, the A*STAR CCO, which was established late last year, also offers the critical service of connecting researchers across the RIs, consortia and centres under BMRC and SERC.

But, beyond awareness and efficient search process, incentives always help when it comes to encouraging collaborations.

This is where CCO can play a unique role.

CCO has initiated several funding mechanisms to support cross-council thematic workshops and bottom-up research proposals.

In its first grant call, the CCO awarded five research grants for cross-council projects that involve five SERC RIs and three BMRC RIs and consortia.

Results of the second grant call by CCO will be made available soon.

Two workshops in the areas of imaging microscopy and biomaterials, which will be organised by IMRE and IBN, are also in the pipeline.

 

To fully exploit the collective potential of BMRC and SERC research institutes and consortia, A*STAR is prepared to take this process to the next level through the setting up of a Joint Research Council building on the efforts of CCO.

This joint council, which will be co-chaired by the Chairmen of the two Research Councils, is a strategic planning platform that will examine issues common to BMRC and SERC.

The Joint Council will review the research areas where a top down cross council approach is needed for A*STAR to build the capabilities and achieve the impact; it will then propose the plan for implementation and oversee the progress; and more broadly, it will also oversee the nurturing of a more collaborative cross council environment.

The joint council will thus complement the council-specific planning of BMRC and SERC to bring A*STAR to its next phase of development.

 

Once again, I am very encouraged to see such an overwhelming response at this first Scientific Conference.

I was told that more than 650 people have registered to take part in this conference cum RI Open House.

This is a very positive sign.

Now that we have brought so many of you together, I hope you will take the time to get to know some of your colleagues in the other RIs or the other Council and find out what they are doing.

Where it makes sense, I am sure collaborations will spring forth quite naturally.

 

A*STAR and the Councils will provide the encouragement and incentive, and we will also put in place arrangements for both top down and ground up initiated research topics.

This way, we can harness the collective capabilities and synergies of all the scientists in the A*STAR family.

 

Finally, let me wish all of you a meaningful and fruitful conference.

 

Thank you.