NRF Central Gap Fund (CGF)

NRF Central Gap Fund

Funds translational technologies in Singapore through the NRF Central Gap Fund toward prototype development.

The NRF Central Gap Fund (CGF) is a translational research grant administered by the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF), a department within the Prime Minister's Office established in 2006. The programme bridges the gap between early-stage research outputs and market-ready prototypes or functional processes, targeting technologies that require further development before they are suitable for commercialisation. Proposals are accepted throughout the year on a needs basis — there are no fixed submission deadlines or annual call cycles. Applications are processed via the Integrated Grants Management System (IGMS) at researchgrant.gov.sg.

Awards are capped at S$2 million inclusive of 30% overheads for a project duration of up to two years. Projects exceeding S$2 million may be considered case by case with stage-gating requirements applied. Co-funding from the host institution or an Industry Engagement Office (IEO) is required unless the applicant has previously received translation or gap funding from those sources. The Project Lead must have demonstrated experience leading translation or gap-funded projects, and the team must include both researchers with relevant technical expertise and a person with business management or business development responsibilities.

Eligible host organisations are limited to Singapore publicly funded research entities: A*STAR Research Institutes, autonomous universities, polytechnics, Institutes of Technical Education, public hospitals, CREATE entities, Research Centres of Excellence, local public research centres, and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. For-profit companies and individuals are not eligible to apply as lead applicants. The CGF covers any area of science and engineering provided the proposed work demonstrably advances an early technology toward a working prototype or functional process closer to market adoption.