UK & Singapore Universities Establish First Alliance for Entrepreneurship &Innovation

16 universities across the United Kingdom, in partnership with Singapore universities, have formed the first joint alliance for entrepreneurship and innovation on April 8. 

According to a press release issued by the UK government, UK-Singapore Universities Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (UKSAEI) assembled together to expand collaboration between Singapore and the UK in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The virtual event was attended by H.E. Kara Owen, British High Commissioner to Singapore, and H.E. Lim Thuan Kuan, Singapore High Commissioner to the UK, Erudera.com reports.

The alliance intends to strengthen the cooperation between the UK and Singapore in a matter of innovation ecosystems, putting ease to knowledge exchange, global licensing of technologies, and training the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs.

While saluting the alliance, the British High Commissioner to Singapore, Kara Owen, noted that the countries are committed to invest in research, innovation, and enterprise in order to accelerate the support for economic development.

“Collaboration in knowledge and education is a top priority for the SG-UK Partnership for the Future, with science and innovation at its heart. The alliance builds on the extensive links to make a practical contribution to the role innovation and enterprise development will play in post-COVID-19 recovery,” Owen asserted.

At the same time, her counterpart from Singapore, Lim Thuan Kuan, said that the collaboration between the two countries has only strengthened since the agreement of the Singapore-UK Innovation & Research Partnership Agreement which was signed in 2014.

“Singapore’s collaboration on research, innovation, and enterprise with the UK has been growing from strength to strength. I welcome this ground-up initiative and the aim of the alliance to facilitate commercialization and innovation among our IHLs,” Thuan Kuan stated on the matter.

The alliance intends to:

• support, share knowledge, and ease UK and Singapore universities’ development in technology transfer and commercialization
• encourage innovation, create a cross-border licensing and assist in founding human capacity buildings related to technology development
• strengthen commercialization activities between the respective countries
• create value collaboratively while easing collaborations between all institutions from the two countries

The implementation of the agreement between the UK and Singapore signed in 2014 has resulted in many many successful collaborations, such as the Roll Rolls-Royce’s corporate lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), which was partially funded by the National Research Foundation as well as the launch of the collaboration of the University of Bristol and NTU for developing technologies for healthy aging. 

As of 2019, Singapore was ranked first in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index and is seriously investing in research, innovation, and international development. The previous budget allocated during the period 2015 to 2020 planned to support R&D and three cross-cutting programs such as academic research, manpower, and Innovation & Enterprise.