The NRF will resume the CRP grant calls in June 2010. The 6th CRP grant call will open for applicants to submit white papers on 25 June 2010. The NRF's CRP grant call is open to all areas of science and technology. Multi-disciplinary research is strongly encouraged as is partnership between industry and academia.
The closing date for White Paper submission is 5 Aug 2010 and application can be done online via: rita.nrf.gov.sg/default.aspx
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The Competitive Research Programme (CRP) Funding Scheme complements the existing Strategic Research Programmes that have been identified top-down, by funding a broad base of research ideas, through a competitive bottom-up approach. This will help to identify new potential strategic research areas in which Singapore can invest to develop core capabilities for new industries of the future.
The CRP Funding Scheme will support R&D programmes, each comprising multiple related projects under a unifying theme. Each CRP Funding Scheme award is for a maximum of S$10 million per programme, over three to five years. There are expected to be two rounds of grant calls each year.
While the CRP Funding Scheme is open to all areas of science and technology, preference will be given to areas that fall outside of the focus of existing NRF Strategic Research Programmes, such as the Biomedical Sciences Translational & Clinical Research (BMS), Environmental and Water Technologies (EWT), and Interactive and Digital Media (IDM).
Open to both public and private sector participants, the CRP Funding Scheme aims to encourage collaboration and partnerships between academia and industry. By funding at the programme level, a more coordinated and integrated support of high-impact inter-disciplinary research is possible as a larger budget can be allocated to fund a number of related projects to address a given problem.
The CRP Funding Scheme involves two types of calls: General and Scenario-based calls.
Overview of the CRP Funding Scheme
General CRP
The General CRP allows the Principal Investigators (PIs) to surface any new area of research with potential economic and societal benefits for Singapore through a bottom-up approach. Calls for the General CRP will be held annually. Each proposal should be submitted by a Lead PI, who is expected to be actively involved in the overall management of the programme and who will be accountable for the research and its deliverables.
CRP proposals should demonstrate the following:
- High quality cutting-edge science;
- High likelihood of building up research infrastructure and capabilities in Singapore;
- Competent team consisting of individuals with credible track records;
- Excellent execution of individual projects which form a coherent programme; and
- High potential to generate economic and societal benefits to Singapore by creating new industries or advancing existing industries.
Scenario-based CRP
The Scenario-based approach to identifying research programmes will complement the General CRP scheme. The Scenario-based CRP aims to support R&D programmes that are truly use-inspired and able to produce technical breakthroughs to big challenges and opportunities for Singapore.
In each Scenario-based call, NRF will articulate a future scenario that offers a major challenge or opportunity for Singapore. The research community will be invited to submit proposals for research programmes that will address key scientific and technological challenges presented by the given scenario.
In addition to the basic criteria for General CRP proposals, Scenario-based CRP proposals will also be evaluated on the following:
- Extent to which the proposed R&D programme address the challenges or opportunities posed by the given scenario;
- Relevance and importance of the proposed R&D programme in terms of the economic, technological, social and environmental impact on Singapore; and
- Quality of the proposed R&D programme, compared to similar international efforts elsewhere.
Eligibility
Principal Investigators from all Singapore-based institutions of higher learning (IHLs), public sector agencies and research institutions, not-for-profit hospitals and research laboratories as well as companies and company-affiliated research laboratories, are eligible to apply. Support for private sector organisations which are based in Singapore would be provided on a co-funding basis.
Only research conducted in Singapore may be funded under the CRP.
R&D proposals already funded by other Singapore agencies would not be considered under the CRP.
Evaluation of Proposals
Both the General CRP and Scenario-based CRP involve a two-stage proposal submission process. Proposals submitted will be evaluated and shortlisted by a Local Evaluation Panel in the first stage. Shortlisted submissions will be asked to be developed into full proposals and sent for international peer review. The final evaluation and selection of projects to be awarded will be made by NRF on the recommendation of the CRP International Evaluation Panel (IEP).
Applications
Calls for both the General CRP and the Scenario-based CRP are publicised on NRF’s Research, Innovation and Technology Administration (RITA) system. Interested applicants may find out more about the specific CRP calls that are open and submit their applications through the system here.
