NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), has introduced SGD10 million (US$7.5 million) Innovation Fellowship and Venture Creation Awards. Another SGD10 million commitment has been made to offer pre-seed funding to successful teams under the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP) through the enhanced GRIP 2.0.
- Objectives of the Initiatives: The initiatives seek to encourage NUS faculty and researchers, many of whom have a strong track record in deep tech, to adopt entrepreneurial mindsets in their research pursuits. They aim to recognize and incentivize innovators at various stages of their academic careers to motivate them to commercialize their research into tangible solutions.
- Support Offered: Awardees will receive a two-year grant and guidance from NUS Enterprise to support their research commercialization journey. Successful teams under GRIP will receive up to S$250,000 (US$155,000) in pre-seed funding, 2.5 times more than the funding for earlier teams. GRIP, launched in 2018, guides NUS post-graduate students, researchers, and alumni to develop into deep tech entrepreneurs, nurturing early-stage ventures from research commercialization.
- Categories of Awards: The Innovation Fellowship and Venture Creation Awards include three categories: Innovation Fellow, Provost’s Innovation Chair Professor, and President’s Venture Creation Chair Professor.
Professor Chen Tsuhan, Deputy President (Innovation and Enterprise) at NUS, emphasized the role of their initiatives in shaping the future and enhancing Singapore’s status as a leading technology, innovation, and enterprise hub in Global-Asia. Associate Professor Benjamin Tee, Associate Vice President of NUS Enterprise, highlighted that the new Innovation Fellowship and Venture Creation Awards, along with GRIP 2.0, work together to accelerate deep tech innovation and venture creation, aiming for significant impact.
