International Research Collaboration Grant Call Between New Zealand and Singapore

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LAUNCH OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATION GRANT CALL BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND SINGAPORE

  1. The National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore, in collaboration with National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Management University (SMU) and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), has set up the Singapore Data Science Consortium (SDSC) to support data science technologies Research and Development and position the data science-based economy for the future. Details on the SDSC strategies and goals can be found at https://sdsc.sg/.
  1. This joint grant call will contribute to the overarching objective of accelerating the development of Data Science capabilities in both Singapore and New Zealand. This impact will be realised in aggregate, across the projects that will be funded under this call. You can find more details regarding the eligibility, process and evaluation criteria of the joint grant call here. Please read through the information carefully.
  1. This joint grant call is published on Monday, 3 Feb 2020 and proposals must be submitted via the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Investment Management System (IMS) Portal by Monday, 16 Mar 2020, 12pm (New Zealand Time GMT+13). Please note that a mandatory registration by Thursday, 20 Feb 2020, 12pm (New Zealand Time GMT+13) is required to access the IMS Portal. Results are expected to be announced by Jun 2020.
  1. For Singapore applicants, please complete the template forms for 1) Budget/Work Contributions/Milestones/ KPIs (excel), 2) Other Funding Support (excel), and 3) Grant Endorsement Form (word). Please submit the completed forms together with your application via the MBIE portal.
  1. Each proposed project must centre on a fundamental technical problem or challenge and have a novel technical application in Data Science listed below. The focus was developed from a joint New Zealand Singapore workshop, which identified potential areas and methods of Data Science collaboration between our two countries. Exceptional proposals in other areas of mutual benefit to both Singapore and New Zealand will also be considered.
  • 3D spatio-temporal sensing of environment. We will prioritise projects with an arboreal focus in both rural and urban settings.
  • Health. We will prioritise projects covering mental health, dementia and aging-related conditions.
  • Natural language processing. We will prioritise projects centred on vernacular languages, indigenous knowledge.
  1. Notwithstanding the above criteria, the evaluation panel reserves the right to make a final decision based on other strategic considerations.
  1. Each application must be composed of one team from Singapore and one team for collaboration from New Zealand (approved by MBIE), with one Principal Investigator (Lead PI) from Singapore and the other PI from New Zealand. For Singapore PIs, applicants should not have any outstanding reports for all national grants currently or previously held.
  1. The grant fund size for the Singapore teams would be approximately SGD1 million for the duration of the project (expected to be 3 years). Note that the New Zealand partners may have a higher budget as the overhead (including salaries of PIs) is much higher in New Zealand. Essentially, you can expect 1:1 match for resources on the project. The proposal should indicate the budget from both sides, i.e., specify separate budgets for each country.
  1. Queries can be directed to huimin@nus.edu.sg.
  1. You may refer to a list of Frequently Asked Questions HERE.

For those who are interested, please read through the information found in the grant call document HERE and submit your proposals via the MBIE’s portal.