Speech by

Professor Subra Suresh
President, NTU

SINGAPOREAN RESEARCHERS GLOBAL SUMMIT 2021

 

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of National Research Foundation,
Mr Heng Swee Keat

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

It is my great honour to welcome everyone to Nanyang Technological University for the Singaporean Researchers Global Summit 2021. To those of you who have returned to Singapore to attend this Summit, a very warm welcome home. I know there are also many other Singaporeans abroad who are joining us virtually. I understand there are more than 800 people who are registered for this event from abroad. We are delighted to have you all here with us.

This Summit is a gathering of Singapore’s brightest minds and a celebration of the nation's global achievements in research and innovation. It is a platform for Singaporean researchers at home and abroad to connect with one another and to forge new networks.

The inaugural Singaporean Researchers Global Summit in 2019 hosted by the National University of Singapore was an important milestone in the development of the research ecosystem in Singapore. Two years later, the world has drastically changed.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons about science and society. It has touched nearly every aspect of our lives, caused many disruptions and presented serious risks to our health and safety. At the same time, Science and Technology have proven their critical importance to humankind, from the development of vaccines at unprecedented speed, to the adoption of technology at unparalleled pace. Lessons so far from COVID-19.

First, the critical importance of research, of universities, and of evidence-based decision making has been clearly demonstrated both to society, and to policymakers. Second, at the same time, trust in science and policy is not fully evident across the world, from vaccine hesitancy to many other things. This is compounded by the fake news and instant communication that could be devoid of fact checking, and evidence. Third, significant acceleration in the adoption of technology has made globalization even more prominent. At the same time, closed borders because of COVID-19, and local geopolitics in both developed and developing countries has made parochialism and anti-globalisation more prevalent. Fourth, COVID-19 has exposed deep inequality between developed nations and developing nations. And within both developed and developing nations, with respect to inequality of race and gender inequality of opportunities, inequality of access to digital tools and opportunities. Fifth, the full psychological, economic, and human and societal impact of COVID-19 is still unknown.

Let's just think about this. Between March and May of last year, approximately 2.5 billion people were at least partially, and involuntarily prevented from having their routine life because of COVID-19 across the world. The last time anything close to this happened was in 1980. At that time, the world population was not even 2.5, not even 2 billion. So, if we take all these five factors into account, there is a lot that we still don't know. There is a lot of opportunity for scientists, researchers, and scholars to contribute to society as we base our knowledge on how our society will come out of this, not just for the near term, but also, for the long term.

At NTU, our scientists have developed innovative solutions such as autonomous disinfection robots, COVID-19 rapid test kits and a breathalyser device that delivers results in two minutes, a smart mask, novel antimicrobial coatings, as well as fundamental research on the coronavirus to find new drug targets for treatment and vaccine development.

Theme of Summit: Opportunities in RIE2025

The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging, but it has also created opportunities for new research that will benefit society and humanity.

The theme of this Summit could therefore not be more relevant. It is: Opportunities in Research, Innovation and Enterprise Plan 2025 . RIE2025 is the Government’s plan to fund R&D and the commercialisation of technology over the next few years. It aims to ensure Singapore remains competitive in R&D internationally and that R&D contributes to enhancing the lives of Singaporeans.

It is organised along four key focus areas: manufacturing, human health and potential, sustainability, and digital economy. The government has committed a record $25 billion toward this national effort and from this investment, over $2 billion will be set aside for nurturing and training future researchers and scientists.

NTU2025 Initiatives

Singapore’s universities are the engine in driving the RIE2025 plan. Its universities have long played pivotal roles in educating and inspiring the leaders of tomorrow and generating new knowledge through research and innovation.

At NTU we will strongly support Singapore’s national R&D priorities. Our five-year strategic plan, NTU2025, details our ambitions for the pillars of education, research and innovation, and for nurturing a strong NTU community. Our research pillar is closely aligned with RIE 2025.

To achieve our research and innovation ambitions, for example, NTU aims to catalyse high-impact research while fostering strong interdisciplinary collaborations and translating that knowledge into enterprise. We look to develop comprehensive solutions that adequately address the multi-faceted challenges we face as a society. We have identified six focus areas that span Science and Technology fields, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities domains, and that we believe have the potential for significant intellectual and societal impact, namely: artificial and augmented Intelligence; brain and learning, resilient urbanization and natural ecosystems; health and society; culture organisations and society; and the future of industry. This will position NTU to be the research and academic anchor of scientific communities that can achieve real impact, especially in Jurong Innovation District and in HealthCity Novena, both of which are close to NTU’s campuses.

Our students will also benefit from gaining first-hand experience of what it is like to be working in R&D at the frontiers of knowledge and we aim to inspire more of them to contribute to Singapore’s impetus to innovation.

Purpose of the Summit

This Summit is a platform to demonstrate the close collaborations of Singapore’s autonomous universities, and to bring diverse communities of people together. It also allows us to reach out to Singaporeans overseas, and to continue discussions about the exciting research opportunities in Singapore.

To the students participating here, I hope you will see how exciting a career in research can be and may consider joining us in making Singapore and the world a better place. To overseas Singaporeans, I hope you are excited by the progress we have made and our plans for the future.

Concluding Remarks

I would like to thank Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat for being with us here today and for joining us for the dialogue session, and to all the speakers and panelists at this summit. I must also thank Prof Ling San, Provost of NTU Singapore, and all his leadership team members in the Provost Office for their significant efforts in organising this conference together.

I hope over the next two days you will feel challenged, excited and inspired, but most of all that you will feel welcome to engage in R&D in Singapore. I wish everyone a most fruitful summit.