Background
The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Innovation Centre has launched the 5th Innovation Grant Call that enables Faculty members to pursue exciting new avenues of market-driven research and participate in programs that will help accelerate their innovations toward commercialization.
The funding will be used to:
(1) de-risk the technology by developing prototypes or conducting proof-of-concept
(2) determine a go-to-market strategy for the products or services being developed.
The Innovation Grant and support from the Innovation Centre will assist faculty to move their discovery from the laboratory toward the marketplace.
Along with funding, the grant recipients receive:
· Exposure through SMART Innovation Centre events and opportunities to connect with investors, entrepreneurs, the business community, and the media as appropriate.
· Support through a Catalyst Program, including customer contacts, business advice, market input, and IP strategy.
· Opportunity to participate in i-Teams, cross campus courses that involve highly qualified teams of pre-screened graduate students for Innovation Centre projects.
For more information regarding the Innovation Grant, please refer to their website.
Funding Information
|
Capped Amount |
Maximum Duration |
|
S$250,000 |
2 years |
This primary grant will be the Innovation Grant of up to S$250,000. However, for projects deemed too early, where the go-to-market strategy is not clearly understood or the technology is at a very early stage, an Ignition Grant of up to S$50,000 will be rewarded covering 6 - 12 month period of early development.
Application Criteria
1. Researchers from all Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore (eg. NUS, NTU, SIM, SMU, SUTD, Polytechnics, etc).
2. The grant will cover innovations from all emerging technologies (medical, biotech, medical device, environment, transportation, energy, information technology, nanotechnology, etc). There are no limitations.
3. The end point of the grant funding should be a well- defined business opportunity attractive to start-up company formation or licensing to a commercial firm.
4. Innovation Grant funding must be able to complete a prototype design and testing or a pivotal proof-of-concept experiment in 18 months (within the 2 years).
5. At the end of the first year, the progress will be reviewed before continuation to the second year funding.
6. For projects deemed too early, where the go-to-market strategy is not clearly understood or the technology is at a very early stage, an Ignition Grant of up to S$50,000 will be rewarded covering a 6 to 12 month period of early development. Upon successful completion of an Ignition Grant, the faculty and the research team can apply for a full Innovation Grant
Application Procedure
- Email Submission of Proposal (Deadline: 15 Jun 2012, 5:00 PM, Singapore Time)
· Submissions should be done electronically via email to: innovationgrants@smart.mit.edu by the deadline stipulated above.
· The grant Application Form and budget template are attached herewith, and are also available at: http://web.mit.edu/smart/innovationgrant/forms.html.
- Submission of the following documents to NUHS Research Office by 15 Jun 2012, Friday
Endorsement by Host Institution is not required for the electronic submission to SMART. However, PIs are to seek the endorsement of their respective HOD and Dean/VDR (or equivalent) using the Grant Endorsement Form prior to applying.
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Kindly Note:
If the proposed study would requires biospecimen or tissue banking, please contact Dr Eng Chon Boon (chon_boon_eng@nuhs.edu.sg ) from the NUHS Tissue Repository. The tissue repository will assist in biobanking budgetary. Kindly visit http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/tissue/Cost%20Recovery%20Schedule.pdf
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