Nov 5, 2024

The National Graduate Research Innovation Program (National GRIP) was unveiled on Tuesday by Heng Swee Keat, the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF). NRF, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU, Singapore) have partnered to create the program, which will begin in January 2025 with a five-year commitment of S$50 million ($37.8 million) in in-kind and financial support. NTU’s Lean Launchpad (LLP2.0) and NUS’s Graduate Research Innovation Program 2.0 (NUS GRIP 2.0) are two current incubator programs that are integrated into National GRIP. The new initiative will be a full-fledged incubator program created to close the gap between market application and scientific research. Through an organized program framework, it will assist startup teams in honing their initial concepts, confirming market demands, and creating solid business models. In order to advance innovative solutions from the lab to the global marketplace and strengthen Singapore’s position as a leader in technological entrepreneurship, National GRIP plans to train up to 300 startup teams by 2028 and nurture over 150 spin-offs by 2030 with individualized mentorship from industry leaders and access to a network of experts. Aspiring researchers, inventors, and founders from Singapore’s autonomous universities (AUs) and A*STAR research institutes (RIs) will be accepted into the 12-month program. In order to create deep tech ventures, participants will form teams and utilize the unique strengths of their respective institutions, such as in research, design, business, and engineering. In addition to joining current teams in NUS GRIP 2.0 and LLP2.0 to launch deep tech startups, National GRIP participants will have access to the vast pool of intellectual property across AUs and A*STAR RIs. Teams can be efficiently paired with qualified investors through this platform, which brings together a critical mass of deep tech startups, and vice versa. By incorporating them early in the program, National GRIP will strengthen relationships with deep tech venture capitalists (VCs) and venture builders, including current NUS Grip 2.0 strategic partners Legend Capital, SOSV Investments LLC, and Vertex Holdings, to give the teams better commercial insights. By expanding their industry knowledge and improving their access to specialized markets and investment readiness, these partners aid startups. Additionally, there are plans to use VCs’ networks to draw in seasoned founders who can work with the startup teams as advisors, collaborators, or co-founders to help them grow more quickly.