Oral reply to PQ on assessing A*STAR's industrial value-add to local enterprises

Question

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) beyond patents, publications and licensing revenue, what KPIs does the Ministry use to assess A*STAR’s industrial value-add to local enterprises, especially SMEs; and (b) how many SMEs have commercialised A*STAR-originated technology in the past five years.

Oral Answer (to be attributed to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong)

1. Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR’s) value-add to local enterprises is assessed through indicators such as (a) the number of projects that A*STAR undertakes with local enterprises, (b) the number of research scientists and engineers (RSEs) seconded to local enterprises under the Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) programme, and (c) the number of A*STAR spin-offs.

2. These indicators reflect three key ways that A*STAR supports local enterprises.

3. First, providing access to research capabilities, intellectual property and technologies. This includes access to shared prototyping and pilot-scale production facilities such as National Semiconductor Translation and Innovation Centre (NSTIC) and Innovation Factory@Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), that would otherwise require substantial upfront investments by the companies. A*STAR aims to set up more of such facilities moving forward. Over the past five years, A*STAR has undertaken more than 2,400 projects with 925 local enterprises.

4. Second, transferring knowledge and talent to drive transformation. Through the T-Up programme, A*STAR has seconded more than 300 RSEs to 177 local enterprises over the past five years, equipping them with technical expertise that they may not be able to build in-house. Our evaluation studies show that enterprises participating in T-Up saw 44% higher revenue and 22% higher total employment than non-participating firms on average within three years of starting the T-Up project.

5. Third, nurturing deep-tech startups from lab to market. A*STAR technologies have spun off more than 70 new companies over the past five years. Notable examples of companies that are launched on the back of an IP or technology from A*STAR include Mirxes and MetaOptics, which have successfully scaled internationally.

6. 230 local small and medium enterprises and startups have licensed 302 A*STAR-originated technologies over the past five years.