National Research Foundation Singapore

Invests in Singapore's national research priorities through competitive grants, fellowships, and translational funding.

National Research Foundation Singapore is Singapore's research council under the Prime Minister's Office. It sets national research, innovation, and enterprise direction through the RIE plans, and RIE2030 commits S$37 billion for 2026 to 2030. NRF's remit is broad: it coordinates policy, funds strategic programmes, and helps shape the national R&D system.

Its portfolio spans competitive research grants, fellowships, investigatorships, translational gap funding, corporate laboratories, and international collaboration. Current routes include the Competitive Research Programme, Frontier and Thematic CRP, the NRF Fellowship, the NRF Investigatorship, the Central Gap Fund, and the Singapore-Horizon Europe Complementary Fund. The Central Gap Fund can support up to S$2 million over two years, with proposals from public research institutions, hospitals, universities, CREATE entities, and related centres.

NRF's operating style is national rather than sector-specific. It backs basic and frontier research, then pushes promising work toward prototypes, translational platforms, and international partnerships. Applicants do best when they can show scientific ambition, a credible team, and a clear path from research output to national impact.