Update on National Research Foundation's Work

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Prime Minister (a) whether the National Research Foundation has achieved its objectives; (b) what is the number of patents filed in Singapore annually for the past five years; and (c) what are the measures that will be implemented to increase Singapore's creativity and knowledge-based output.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Teo Chee Hean) (for the Prime Minister): Mr Speaker, Sir, the National Research Foundation (NRF) seeks to strengthen Singapore's R&D capabilities, encourage greater innovation and nurture the growth of technology-based enterprises in Singapore. This will help Singapore to remain competitive and create high value jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans in the future.

Over the last decade, we have invested heavily in research and development to grow knowledge-intensive industries and services for sustained economic growth. Singapore is moving steadily towards an innovation-driven knowledge-based economy.

Singapore has made a good start in establishing itself as an R&D hub. Supported by public investment in R&D, Singapore's universities have developed into internationally-competitive research-intensive universities to complement their strong education mission and enhance their impact on our economy and society. Through sustained and substantial R&D investments, NUS and NTU have built up five Research Centres of Excellence (RCEs), which perform cutting-edge research in fields such as Quantum Technologies and Earth Sciences.

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Our local universities and research institutions have established collaborations with renowned research universities, and anchored world-class researchers and top faculty in Singapore. For example, the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) houses interdisciplinary research centres from some of the world's best research universities, such as MIT, Berkeley, Peking university and ETH Zurich. NRF has also awarded 48 Fellowships to top young researchers from around the world to pursue groundbreaking research in Singapore.

Our universities and A _STAR have been critical in providing the R &D knowledge base to draw in investments from multinational companies. For example, in 2011, Infineon Technologies injected around S$88 million to expand its production capacity and research and development in Singapore, which included setting up the Semiconductor Supply Chain Science Centre to carry out collaborative research with the universities. Likewise, A_STAR has forged strategic public-private partnerships with key companies, bringing investments into Singapore and creating good, high-value jobs. Over the past one year, companies such as GE Global Research, Baidu, L'Oreal and Applied Materials have set up new R&D activities as well as collaborations with A*STAR research institutes in Singapore.

Dr Lim asked about the number of patents filed in Singapore annually. Every year, around 1,500 to 2,000 patents are filed worldwide as a result of R&D done in Singapore. However, this is only one measure of innovation. The best measure of success is when research outcomes are coupled with innovation to translate R&D output into solutions with economic and social impact. Singapore has benefited from strategic R&D investments in areas such as biomedical sciences, clean water and interactive & digital media. These have sharpened our competitive edge and generated new growth. Our biomedical sciences manufacturing output has more than tripled from $6.3 billion in 2000 to $23.3 billion in 2010, and created 14,000 jobs by end 2010. Investments in Clean Water technologies have helped develop Singapore into a Global Hydro-hub; in the water sector value-add expanded by $590 million and 2,300 jobs were created over the period 2006 to 2010. R&D has also supported a growing interactive & digital media sector, where value-add expanded by 26% from 2007 to 2010.

The Government is investing $16.1 billion over a five-year period from 2011 to 2015 as part of the RIE2015 plan to boost research, innovation and enterprise. This is a 20% increase over the previous five years. Key thrusts under RIE2015 include allocating a greater proportion of R&D to focus on economic outcomes, providing more support for commercialisation of R&D into products and services, and fostering R&D collaborations across disciplines and between the public and private sectors.

By steadily building up our scientific and technological capabilities, we can grow Singapore to be among the most research-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial economies in the world. This will form the foundation for our future competitiveness and economy, creating good jobs and improving the lives of Singaporeans.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Nee Soon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the Deputy Prime Minister for the very comprehensive answer. Sir, I have a few supplementary questions. First, in a letter to the Forum Page dated 24 July 2012, entitled "Innovations: individuals must be properly rewarded and recognised", the writer claimed that there is a blanket rule that companies or employers own all new ideas created by employees. Is that true? If that is true, it may stifle creativity. I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister what is the reward to the individual inventors under our existing laws. Will the Government introduce legislation similar to the Employees' Patent Act in some of the states in the US that protects employees against a perceived disparity in bargaining power with respect to patent rights agreements between employees and employers, where the inventor will also have the right to continue research or development of the product or knowledge that he invented?

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Mr Teo Chee Hean: Sir, that is a very specific question and I would not get into it because it involves intellectual property agreements between individuals and companies or research labs which they work for, and from which they draw resources and perhaps other supporting staff and activity, and perhaps even foundational research, precursor research which goes into the particular innovation or patent which the person or individual has rights to. I think I would not want to go into specifics on this one, but this is an active area of study in Singapore – the whole area of intellectual property rights, patent rights and so on – and we do have to find the correct balance between individuals and the institutions which they work for.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang): Sir, I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for his answer. I have just one clarification. How does NRF exactly measure its success in helping companies or researchers in commercialising the R&D or IP? I noticed that the Deputy Prime Minister gave some figures. Are those based on revenue returns or on return on investments based on what NRF puts in? I also have other side questions. Does NRF have KPIs for local companies it reaches out to, and how many local companies are involved with the NRF today?

Mr Teo Chee Hean: NRF does have KPIs for the investment funds that we put into the various research institutions, and so does A STAR. I do not have the precise number of local companies which we are working with. We do work with a range of companies, A STAR particularly. Because A*STAR does research in areas which are much closer to the immediately exploitable economic areas. For example, in water technologies, there will be very, very close interactions with many companies, both local and foreign. Certainly, for the biomedical sciences, that is so. But there is also much more foundational and fundamental research which is carried out to build the knowledge base upon which applied research is done, and on which the specific innovations can then draw on in order to create new industries and new products. So, I do not have the number of precisely how many individual Singapore companies are being impacted by each of these projects.