Government agency Spring Singapore has raised S$10m ($7.8m) to bring clean and medical technology intellectual property to market.
In order to do so, the government has announced three private sector translators (PSTs) to develop tech transfer opportunities. Nanyang Technological University will partner with commercialisation firm 360iP to work on identifying clean technology, while life sciences firm AITbiotech will partner with Sys-Mac, an engineering subsidiary of Australia-listed Zicom Group on medtech commercialisation. The third PST is yet to be announced.
The PSTs will work with six Centres of Innovation by contributing intellectual property (IP) and supporting the acceleration of the IP towards commercialisation. In addition, the PSTs will offer small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) a per-per-use model of their facilities so smaller businesses can utilise the IP without the need to set up in-house research labs. 40 IP translation projects and 200 R&D services will be provided by the PSTs over the coming three years.
Chew Mok Lee, Spring’s assistant chief executive, said: “Research done in laboratories is usually raw and still at a conceptual stage. The PSTs will identify suitable IP and help develop these into usable technology for their SME clients. Hence, the PSTs will do the job of “translating” lab research into working prototypes which can be commercialised into innovative products and services. Such technology-based products will put SMEs in a stronger position to compete in an increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace, where those which demonstrate niche capabilities will present higher barriers of entry to their competitors.”
