Press Releases
Two Initiatives to Build a Strong Team of Clinician Scientists and Translational Researchers in Singapore
28 May 2008
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28 May 2008
The Ministry of Health and The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have put forward two programmes to further boost the pool of clinician scientists and translational researchers in Singapore.
The two initiatives are the Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award (STaR) and the Clinician Scientist Award (CSA), which are targeted at building up a talent pool to bridge the gap between basic research and clinical applications.
Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award (STaR)
The newly introduced Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award is a prestigious award that aims to recruit and nurture world-class clinician scientists to undertake cutting edge translational and clinical research (TCR) in Singapore. Some will also lead or contribute to the development of national flagship research programmes which are oriented around strategic disease areas.
Given their expertise and significant number of years in research, STaR investigators will serve as catalysts to foster strong collaborations between research groups and institutions locally and internationally; and help connect the community with other prestigious international research institutions. They will also act as mentors for younger researchers.
Four renowned translational and clinical researchers formed the inaugural batch of STaR awardees, including two international cancer researchers, a Singapore neuroscientist specialising in sleep deprivation and a Singapore eye researcher, previously based overseas and who will now spend more time in Singapore on his translational work in retina vascular imaging. (See Annex for the full list).
The award is for a period of five years and includes funding for salary, an annual budget for research support and a one-time start up grant. The amount varies according to the proposal submitted by the Investigators.
Clinician Scientist Award
Introduced in 2004, the original Clinician Scientist Investigator (CSI) Award Scheme was introduced to provide protected time for clinician scientists to enable them to do internationally competitive research. The CSI scheme has trained 20 clinician scientists in a variety of fields since its inception.
In a further fine-tuning of the programme, the revamped Clinician Scientist Award (CSA) now funds full salary support along with a competitive research grant at two levels – senior investigator and investigator. With this level of funding, the Clinician Scientists now have more protected time to focus on their research. This will enable them to carry out internationally competitive and impactful translational and clinical research.
Five Clinician Scientists joined this batch of CSA. (See Annex for details of their research).
The award is for five years for Senior Investigators and three years for Investigators.
Forging Collaborations & Talent Development
“Scientific advancements today are rarely attributed to the work of a lone researcher. More often, progress is made when new perspectives are brought to an existing problem. This is where collaborations among the scientific community and multidisciplinary research teams are highly valued and strongly encouraged. The STaR and CSA programmes work on this principle to attract talent to work together in the identified strategic areas and translate their research into quality healthcare solutions to benefit patients. This way, we can realise the full potential value of our investment in the biomedical sciences,” says Mr Lim Chuan Poh, A*STAR Chairman and Co-Chair for Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee.
“One of the greatest challenges in the pursuit of clinical excellence is in the attraction and retention of scientific talents. As the global competition to recruit and retain world-class researchers heats up, Singapore needs to ensure that we have a conducive environment to support our researchers to carry out their translational and clinical research work. This initiative to attract, develop and retain critical human capital is a vital component of the Biomedical Sciences Phase II Initiatives”, says Ms Yong Ying-I, Permanent Secretary (Health) and Co-Chair for Biomedical Medical Sciences Executive Committee.
One of the Star awardees and three of CSA recipients belonged to the pioneer Clinician Scientist Investigator batch from 2004. The eventual goal of these two programmes is to build a strong team of talents in translational and clinical research.
Both initiatives are funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and administered by the National Medical Research Council of MOH.
Ministry of Health and A*STAR
28 May 2008
Annex
SingaporeTranslational Research Investigator Award (STaR)
Table caption
Name | Institution | Area of research |
|---|---|---|
Prof Michael Chee Wei Liang* | Duke-NUS GMS | Cognitive Neuroscience |
Prof David M Virshup | Duke-NUS GMS | Cancer |
Prof Daniel G Tenen | BethIsrael Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School NUS | Leukaemia, stem cells |
Prof Wong Tien Yin | SERI NUS | Retinal diseases, retinal imaging, ophthalmology, cardiovascular risk prediction |
Clinician Scientist Award
Table caption
Name | Institution | Area of research |
|---|---|---|
Senior Investigator – five-year programme | ||
A/Prof Aung Tin* | SNEC NUS | Angle closure glaucoma |
A/Prof Ong Sin Tiong | Duke-NUS GMS | Leukaemia |
A/Prof Allen Yeoh Eng Juh* | NUH & NUS | Childhood Leukaemia |
A/Prof Tan Eng King* | NNI & NUS | Essential Tremors |
Investigator – three-year programme | ||
A/Prof Chng Wee Joo | NUH & NUS | Genomics of Multiple Myeloma |
* Pioneer batch of CSI awardees in 2004