The National Research Foundation appoints Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean as chairman

He will be taking over the position from Dr Tony Tan, the newly elected President of Singapore.

The National Research Foundation announced the resignation of Dr Tony Tan as Chairman of NRF and Deputy Chairman of the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council with effect from 1 Sep 2011. The NRF congratulates Dr Tan on his election as the 7th President of the Republic of Singapore.

In a letter accepting Dr Tan’s resignation, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is Chairman of the RIEC, paid tribute to the leadership that Dr Tan provided to NRF and expressed his appreciation for Dr Tan’s sterling contributions to Singapore in research, innovation and entrepreneurship in his role as NRF Chairman since the Foundation’s inception in Jan 2006.

PM Lee credited Dr Tan for the formation of the NRF and RIEC which have, over the last 5 years, contributed significantly to Singapore’s economy and society. He acknowledged Dr Tan’s invaluable contributions in accelerating Singapore’s transformation to a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy and said he was pleased that Dr Tan would continue to champion entrepreneurship in his new role as President.

As Chairman of the NRF Board and Deputy Chairman of the RIEC, Dr Tan initiated three Strategic Research Programmes – Environmental and Water Technologies, Interactive Digital Media and Biomedical SciencesTranslational and Clinical Research. Together with the Clean Energy SRP introduced later, these SRPs are on track to contribute more than $30 billion to our economy and create over 43,000 new jobs by 2015. Under these SRPs, more than 150 scholarships were also awarded to Singaporeans to build a career in R&D.

Dr Tan was also instrumental in establishing important partnerships with renowned universities like MIT and Berkeley of the US, ETH Zurich of Switzerland and Technion of Israel. These universities have set up research centres in the Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise to undertake cutting-edge research in Singapore, providing excellent learning and collaboration opportunities for Singapore researchers.

Under NRF’s National Framework for Innovation & Enterprise, Dr Tan introduced new pathways to commercialise research results, and provided encouragement and incentives to entrepreneurs to create high growth enterprises which provide jobs in Singapore. Among many initiatives, more than 40 start-up companies have benefitted from having experienced entrepreneurs as mentors under the NRF’s Technology Incubator Programme.

Dr Tan also introduced the National Innovation Challenge framework to galvanize the local research community to solve complex challenges facing Singapore. The first challenge was to identify ways to improve Singapore’s energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and increase energy options. Success in this area would boost Singapore’s energy security and growth prospects greatly.

With the resignation of Dr Tan, NRF announces the appointment of Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, as the new Chairman of NRF with effect from 1 Sep 2011.

DPM Teo has been a member of the RIEC since 2006. He assumed the role of Deputy Chairman of NRF in July 2009 and served as the Acting Chairman of NRF when Dr Tan took leave of absence from NRF to contest in the Presidential Election recently.

The NRF offers our best wishes to Dr Tan in his new role as President of Singapore. We look forward to his continuing interest and support in the development and growth of research, innovation and enterprise in Singapore for the betterment of all Singaporeans. We also warmly welcome DPM Teo as our new Chairman and look forward to his leadership.