Research Centres of Excellence (RCEs) are long-term investments, involving careful selection of world-class talent and aimed at developing a virtuous cycle of research excellence in our universities. These Centres will build upon the existing academic strengths and research competencies of the local universities and complement the principally mission-oriented programmes of A*STAR. The NRF and the Ministry of Education (MOE) will co-fund the establishment of a selected number of RCEs.
Vision for RCEs
The vision is for RCEs to conduct world-class investigator-led research with a global impact, focusing on areas aligned with the long-term strategic interests of Singapore. It will serve to attract top academic research talent and retain them in Singapore. At the same time, RCEs will engender interest in research among local students, and encourage more to pursue research careers. RCEs will catalyse the development of local universities into research-intensive universities and will enhance their international standing.
Objectives
RCEs serve three main objectives:
- Attract, retain and support world-class academic investigators to perform high quality and high impact research in Singapore;
- Enhance graduate education (and potentially undergraduate education) in the local universities and train quality research manpower for Singapore; and
- Create new knowledge in selected areas of focus which are of strategic relevance to Singapore.
Organisation
Each RCE is co-located within one of the autonomous universities in Singapore, and is headed by a Director who is an academic researcher of the highest quality, with outstanding scientific and leadership credentials. The RCE Director is committed to investigator-led research and is responsible for the hiring, mentoring and advancement of the investigators, as well as development, research performance and administration of the RCE.
The RCEs are integrated sufficiently with the host university and/or other local universities for knowledge exchange with the wider community of faculty and students, thereby ensuring a cross-flow of talent between the university and itself. This is facilitated by principal investigators (PIs) holding joint-faculty appointment (with teaching responsibilities) at the host university or one of the local universities.
RCEs accept postgraduate research students of the host universities or one of the other local universities for research and training in its laboratories.
Selection and Approval of RCEs
RCEs are defined by global standards of excellence. The RCE proposals have been evaluated based on the following criteria:
- International reputation of the proposed RCE Director and key PIs or its proposed plans to attract the RCE Director and key PIs;
- Potential of the proposed RCE to develop into a world-class research centre;
- Potential of the proposed RCE to synergise and build on existing research capabilities in Singapore universities and the broader research system;
- Credibility and excellence in execution of proposed plans; and
- Strategic economic value of the proposed RCE.
RCE proposals are evaluated by a two-stage selection process. The host university will first submit a whitepaper stating the vision of the proposed RCE and an indication of the resources and budget required to the MOE’s Academic Research Council (ARC). The ARC then recommends to NRF and MOE, whitepapers that merit an invitation to be developed into full proposals.
In the second stage, the RCE full proposals are evaluated by the ARC, with input from external reviewers if necessary. The ARC recommends supported RCE proposals to MOE’s Academic Research Board (ARB) and the NRF Board for funding approval.
Approved RCEs
Since 2007, five RCEs have been approved. They are: Centre for Quantum Technologies, the Cancer Science Institute Singapore , Earth Observatory of Singapore, Mechanobiology Institute and the Singapore Center on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering.
