RESEARCH WORK IN UNIVERSITIES

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RESEARCH WORK IN UNIVERSITIES: 2.

Mr Zainudin Nordin asked the Minister for Education since research has been identified as a key pillar of our economic advancement (a) what is the progress of our efforts to promote more research work in our universities; (b) how do the universities measure the success of research work; (c) whether the quality of research and the processes that are used to measure it are comparable to world standards; and (d) as research is a knowledge-intensive and time-demanding process, what is the maximum number of research groups that research fund recipients can belong to.

Dr Ng Eng Hen: The Government announced its plan to increase its Research and Development (R&D) expenditure from 2.25% of GDP in 2004 to 3% by 2010. As part of this plan, MOE's Academic Research Fund (AcRF) to support research in our universities was nearly tripled to a total sum of about $1.4 billion for five years starting from FY2006 when compared to the preceding same period.

From this, MOE sets aside $250 million for the establishment of Research Centres of Excellence (RCEs) at our universities to fund programmes that will generate research of global impact. RCEs are co-funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), which provides another $500 million, making a total of $750 million. Our universities have geared up their research activities and quality, in tandem with the increased funding. We have already seen some promising indicators of progress. Let me cite some:

(1) Number of postgraduate research students funded by the AcRF currently

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stands at 4,676. This is a 13% increase from 2006 and 65% increase compared to 2001;

(2) Number of projects funded increased from 30 in 2006 to 53 in 2007, representing an increase in funding from $24 million to $42 million;

(3) Three RCEs have been approved over the past two years. One such RCE is the Centre for Quantum Technology at NUS, where a team of three researchers recently won the prestigious 2008 National Science Award for their outstanding theoretical and experimental studies in the field of quantum cryptography; and

(4) NUS and NTU have improved their performance on the research indicators. This was asked by Mr Zainudin. One such indicator is published by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES). In terms of citations per faculty member, NUS has moved up in rank from the 115th-122nd band in 2006, to the 61st-67th rank band in 2007. NTU too has moved up about 40 places.

With these efforts, our universities are gradually climbing up in terms of international research benchmarks.

Our universities adopt internationally-used indicators like those employed by the THES and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. Besides the number of citations per faculty, other indicators, like the number of high quality publications and the number of patents filed and granted, are used to measure their progress.

Beyond quantitative measures, the MOE and the universities rely on qualitative assessments by experts and international academic leaders. For example, the Academic Research Council (ARC) was formed in June 2006 and is

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chaired now by Dr Robert Brown who is President of Boston University and former Provost of MIT.

MOE does not cap the number of research groups that research fund recipients can belong to. This was the specific question asked by the Member. However, when assessing research proposals for funding, expert and evaluation panels do take into account the ability of the researcher to provide the level of commitment needed for the success of the project.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Thank you, Mr Minister, for the comprehensive reply. May I know the success of NUS and NTU and the other universities to encourage our local talents and students to take up research? What is the progress so far?

Dr Ng Eng Hen: Sir, the overall view for the universities, the NRF, the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) chaired by the Prime Minister is to build an environment where there are avenues and opportunities for researchers. At the same time, we also recognise that if you want to jump-start the system, if you want to climb ahead, you will have to bring in people who have already been investing their time and energy into research. Otherwise, you have to re-learn the cycle and you are not very steep in your learning curve.

I think that would be the major thrust of our efforts. I think we have succeeded. Members would have read of luminaries and very strong academics who have been persuaded by our environment to re-locate here and many of them, for example, are in the prime of their research careers. Recently, NTU started another Research Centre of Excellence (RCE) on earth observatory, and a whole team of expert volcanologists who are experts in earth quakes, chose to site here from Stamford. Even though, we are near the

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ring of fire, we do not have volcanoes in Singapore, but yet they chose to site here. So that is one indication of the success that we have.

This will create the environment where Singaporean researchers will benefit. They will be exposed to scientists and researchers of high calibre, whose work is at the cutting edge, and they will, in turn, also take on many of the roles. Many of our own local scientists have indeed gained world recognition.