Agency for Science, Technology and Research

Funds A*STAR, Singapore's statutory agency advancing public mission-oriented research in science and engineering.

A*STAR, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, is Singapore's statutory research agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. It anchors the country's public research effort around mission-oriented science, with work split across the Biomedical Research Council and the Science and Engineering Research Council. Its place in the national five-year RIE plans makes it a central delivery body for research talent, industry collaboration, and translational work, with RIE2025 closing and RIE2030 coming into view in 2026. It is not a general-purpose grant maker; it sits inside Singapore's state research system and funds work that lines up with national priorities.

Its main funding lines are the Industry Alignment Fund - Industry Collaboration Projects, the Industry Alignment Fund - Pre-Positioning Programme, the MTC Young Investigator Research Grant, Singapore Therapeutics Development Review, and MTC Programmatic Funding. The calls span biomedical science, engineering, therapeutics, and manufacturing, trade and connectivity themes. IAF-ICP is open to public research institutions in Singapore and requires industry partners to commit cash or in-kind R&D support, while A*STAR's own institutions and public research performers are the main applicants on the other lines. Active calls move through iGrants, and the agency keeps both rolling and time-boxed cycles in play.

What distinguishes A*STAR is that it combines research performance with grant allocation. The agency uses the same institutional structure to do research, set thematic direction, and move projects toward collaboration with industry and public institutions. For applicants, fit matters most when a proposal matches a national mission, shows a credible route to industry uptake, and can be executed within the five-year funding frame.