Getting varsities to cash in on research; NRF plans academic entrepreneurship scheme that will speed up innovation

HAVING spent the past two years beefing up research expertise and capabilities in local tertiary institutions, the National Research Foundation (NRF) is planning to steer them along the path of entrepreneurship.

NRF chairman Tony Tan said yesterday that NRF is readying a national framework that would accelerate innovation in polytechnics and universities, by helping them turn research ideas into ones that can attract commercial interests.

Speaking in Tel Aviv on the final leg of a study trip in Israel, Dr Tan said that he intends to present the new framework in March at the next Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) meeting, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

'We want to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and involvement of universities and polytechnics with industry and society.'

While framework details won't be finalised until March, it is likely to include incubators, seed funding for early-stage start-ups and programmes to bolster existing technology transfer units in tertiary institutions, Dr Tan said.

He declined to comment on the amount of funding that would be provided, or whether NRF would be partnering private venture capital firms or other commercial institutions.

Out of NRF's $5 billion in funds, $4 billion has already been earmarked for various projects, including the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (Create) - a $1 billion project set up in 2006 to foster joint research between Singapore and top global research centres. Create currently has a partner in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is in talks with the Swiss technology research agency ETH Domain and Israel's Technion Institute of Technology.

Explaining why the NRF is now planning a nationwide academic entrepreneurship scheme, Dr Tan said that it was because the research ground has been well-paved by schemes like Create, as well as earlier research schemes in digital media, environmental technologies and biomedical science.

He singled out the pharmaceutical and biomedical sector growth in the last six years to highlight the success of existing research initiatives. From an almost zero base, this sector now accounts for about 6 per cent of Singapore's GDP.

And the NRF can now take advantage of such research platforms which will surely generate more bright sparks in the coming months, he said.

The framework will incorporate lessons learnt from universities around the world, including Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford University, as well as Israel's Hebrew University and Technion.

The NRF has also studied how countries such as Israel have implemented incubator programmes to provide funding for very early stage companies.

Dr Tan also took notes this week while visiting commercial research labs at IBM, Intel and Hewlett-Packard in Haifa, the Israeli Mediterranean port. The Israel experience will be very useful, Dr Tan said, because both countries share many similar traits, including geographical and population make-up.

'In the next stage of our economic development, we need to build up sufficient numbers of high-growth companies leveraging on technology and knowledge companies that would provide an additional engine of growth,' he said.

Singapore today has an economy characterised by large multinational and government-linked companies. A healthy mix of large corporations and nimble entrepreneurial start-ups will be the eventual goal of any robust economy, he said.

But the act of steering tertiary institutions closer to the industry will not be without its detractors. Some academics have argued that commercialisation could detract from an educational institution's fundamental mission, which is to teach students and serve the good of society.

On the flipside, institutions like universities could also face resistance from its own faculty members wary about the influence of product-oriented mindsets, as opposed to knowledge-driven ones, when the focus is on entrepreneurship.

On this point, Dr Tan said that it was an issue that has been well-argued in the NRF during the formulation of the academic entrepreneurship initiatives. 'In deciding on whether to put forward these set of measures to the Prime Minister in March, I think that we would have to satisfy the first principle of every physician, that is, to do no harm,' he said.

'From my discussions with Technion, Hebrew University, MIT, Stanford University, Berkeley University and so on, I think there is enough evidence for us to arrive at the conclusion that, involving universities in industry in economic entrepreneurship does not in fact detract from the mission of the university in teaching and research, but in fact enhances the basic functions of the university in teaching and research.

'And in many cases, the professors who are most successful in entrepreneurship and industry are also the best teachers and researchers.'

Dr Tan's 17-strong team left Israel yesterday, after a study tour that stretched from Haifa to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.