|      News     |     Events       Maps and Directions    |     Work with Us       Make a Gift       Find a Doctor    


Home > Research > Funding > All Research Funding Opportunities > Program Grants > NRF General-based Competitive Research Programme

NRF General-based Competitive Research Programme

 

  Back to Funding Main Page

NRF Competitive Research Programme (CRP) 9th Grant Call

 

The National Research Foundation Competitive Research Programme (CRP) Funding Scheme aims to encourage high-impact research and enhance intellectual and human capital development for R&D.

 

The CRP scheme aims to fund a broad base of research ideas at the programme level through a competitive bottom-up approach. Each programme may be made up of several related projects sharing a common unifying theme. This will allow a coordinated, integrated and sustained way of supporting high-impact interdisciplinary research because a larger budget can be allocated to fund a number of smaller related projects that address a given problem. The tight linkage among the projects in a programme will also facilitate the commercialisation of research results.

 

In addition, the CRP scheme provides a way to identify future strategic research areas and would complement other on-going research focuses identified via a top-down approach. Two call-for-proposals will be launched yearly.

 

Funding Information

 

Capped Amount Maximum Duration
$10M 5 years

 

The CRP scheme offers funding support for programme of varying sizes over three to five years, capped at a funding quantum of S$10 million. Stronger justifications on the economic contribution would be required for proposals with requested budget in excess of S$5 million. NRF will support 100% of the approved direct costs for supported programmes proposed by public sector organisations. For supported programmes proposed by Singapore-based private sector organisations, funding will be up to 70% of qualifying costs.  

 

In addition, 20% of the total qualifying approved direct costs (i.e., less exceptional items) will be provided for IRC, and another 10% will be given to the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) or equivalent in the host institution to support for IP protection and commercialisation activities.

 

Track A: Open/General Competitive Research Programme (CRP)

 

Proposals in all areas of science and technology, except those primarily involving biomedical sciences (BMS) research or energy research are sought. More details on track A are available at the following web-link, and all submissions under this track must be completed here.

 

For BMS proposals, a separate funding scheme is administered by NMRC and BMRC for BMS proposals. Energy-related proposals should be submitted under Track B.

 

Multi-disciplinary research is strongly encouraged for all submitted proposals, as is partnership between industry and academia.

 

Eligibility

 

  • PIs from all Singapore-based institutions of higher learning (IHLs), public sector agencies and research institutions, hospitals, research laboratories as well as companies and company-affiliated research laboratories/institutions2, are eligible to apply.

 

  • Private sector funding support (i.e., for Singapore-based companies and company-affiliated research laboratories) would be on a co-funding basis, commensurate to the stage of R&D (upstream vs. downstream) of the project.

 

  • Only research conducted in Singapore may be funded under the CRP.

 

  • R&D proposals already funded by other government agencies would not be considered under the CRP. PIs must declare their other funding sources during application.

 

  • Research proposals are invited in all areas of science and technology except for primarily BMS proposals, which will be supported by other funding sources.

 

Selection Process

 

NRF will shortlist promising White Papers to be developed into Full Proposals, which will be put through an international peer review process. NRF's International Evaluation Panel will select the final proposals for funding support. Proposals will be evaluated on the criteria of research excellence, manpower development potential, economic impact and industry involvement.

  

Application Procedure

 

A) Submission for review: 16 Jan 2012, Monday, 12 PM

 

Interested applicants need to submit a White Paper of up to five pages describing their research proposal and objectives as well as expected outcomes.


We will also be putting together an advisory panel to assist in strengthening your proposal where necessary. As such, please submit the relevant documents to NUHS Research Office, NUHS Tower Block, Level 11, and forward the soft copy to Grant_RO@nuhs.edu.sg by Monday, 16 Jan 2012 at 12 PM. We will revert back with the comments by Friday, 20 Jan 2012.

 

Submission through RITA should only proceed once we revert with comments from the advisory panel.

 

SoM NUH

 

  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the White Paper (with annexes)
  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the NUS Grant Endorsement Form

 

  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the White Paper (with annexes)
  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the NUH Grant Endorsement Form

 

White Paper Format
a. Maximum 5 page White Paper write-up
(minimum size 12-point font with reasonable margins, describing the research programme being proposed)

 

b. 2 page CVs for each PI, Co-PI and Collaborators
(to follow format as specified in Annex A in the Guidelines)

 

c. Maximum 2-page reference
(may be attached as annexes that will not be subject to the 5 page limit. White papers that do not adhere to the prescribed format will be excluded from the evaluation)

 

d. Other supporting documents, if applicable

 

Please download the information sheet and detailed guidelines for more information.

 

While no fixed format is required for the 5 page White Paper, it should minimally include the following information presented in a clear and organised manner:

 

  • Objectives of the proposed research programme (both scientific as well as in terms of potential economic and other impact on Singapore);
  • Brief overview of the individual projects within the programme (including how they relate to each other and to the objectives of the programme);
  • Novelty of proposed research viz-a-viz the current state-of-the-art in that field (including an assessment of the international competitiveness of the programme against other efforts by competitors around the world);
  • Expected research outputs and outcomes, and proposed key performance indicators (KPIs) for the programme (which should be linked to measuring progress towards the objectives of the programme);
  • Budget for the entire programme (direct costs broken down into the following broad categories as defined in Annex B, mainly: (a) expenditure on manpower (EOM); (b) equipment; and (c) other operating expenditure (OOE), with sub-categories for conferences/overseas working visits/meetings, materials and consumables (including animal costs if any), use of services/laboratory space within the host institution and miscellaneous costs or others);
  • Timeline of the programme (including intermediate milestones over the duration of the programme);
  • The proposed research team's expertise and relevant prior work/experience, including the roles and contributions of industry PIs or partners where relevant (2 page CVs in the format specified at Annex A are required for the Lead PI, Co-PIs and all collaborators; these should be attached as an annex to the White Paper and will not count against the 5 page limit);
  • Justifications for NRF funding support for the proposed programme;
  • Other relevant information as determined by the Lead PI.

 

B) Online Submission to NRF RITA system - Internal deadline: 27 Jan 2012 (Friday), 12.00pm

 

You may wish to incorporate the comments provided and submit your proposal to NRF through the RITA system for endorsement by the host institute. 

 

Although the system will be opened until 31 Jan 2012 (Tuesday), 11.00 am, please submit to us by 27 Jan 2012 (Friday), 12.00 pm for the host institute's endorsement. Do take note that submissions without the host institute's endorsement will be deemed incomplete.

 

C) Hard Copy Submission - Internal deadline: 1 Feb 2012 (Wed), 5 pm

 

SoM NUH

 

  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the White Paper (with annexes)

 

  • 1 duly-signed hard copy and soft copy of the White Paper (with annexes)

 

Please submit the relevant documents to NUHS Research Office, NUHS Tower Block, Level 11, and forward the soft copy to Grant_RO@nuhs.edu.sg by Wednesday, 1 Feb 2012 at 5 pm.

 

Contact Us

 
Mr Chia De Qing Tel :  6772 3708 Email : medcdq@nus.edu.sg 
Ms Ruth Gao Tel :  6772 3709 Email : ruth_gao@nus.edu.sg