NMRC | Enabling Innovation Grant

The Enabling Innovation Grant is the fourth grant call under the National Innovation Challenge (NIC) on Active and Confident Ageing. This grant call under the research thrust on “ageing in place” aims to develop innovative, game-changing solutions that are easy to use, safe and effective, to improve seniors’ function and enable seniors to remain active, independent and age in place despite their disability.

Challenge Statement

Applicants forming Project Teams can submit more than one Application and the Application should be in response to the challenge statement below. However, a Project Team can only be awarded Funding for one Research project.

Develop innovative solutions that canachieve step improvements of at least 50% compared to baseline measurements of effectiveness and / or cost¹,to enable seniors to age autonomously despite their disability. All assistive devices or new models of assessment should address the needs of seniorswhile being easy to use, safe and effective.

^₁ _{Means holistic view of the overall cost of an assistive device, including but not limited to the assessment (i.e. diagnosis / prescription of assistive devices) costs, retail price, costs of production, supply, maintenance, repairs, training and/or customisation.}

Eligibility

The Enabling Innovation Grant is open to all public and private entities, research institutes and institutes of higher learning (IHLs), registered and/or incorporated in Singapore. Interested applicants should form Project Teams comprising:

a) Members from multi-disciplinary (e.g. pairing medical and technology, engineering) background; and b) An Implementation Partner (e.g. a manufacturer, distributor or end-users for the proposed device or a provider for the proposed model of assessment) to test-bed the proposed solutions.

For detailed participating criteria and instructions, please refer to the Enabling Innovation Grant Public Document and the Enabling Innovation Grant Public Document Annex A.

Awards

Up to 80% funding of approved qualifying costs to develop and implement proposed solutions for up to a period of three years.
Support for indirect costs², on top of supportable qualifying costs, is capped at 20% of the supportable qualifying direct costs.

_{² Only Singapore-registered Institutions that are IHLs or not-for-profit entities, including public healthcare providers, may qualify for support for indirect costs.}

Important dates to note

The timeline for key activities under the Enabling Innovation Grant is set out below.

Activity	Date
Call for Applications	21 November 2016 (Mon)
Public Briefing	1 December 2016 (Thurs)
Deadline for Project Abstract Submission	23 January 2017 (Mon)
Deadline for Submission of Project Proposal	3April 2017 (Mon), or as otherwise specified by the Grantor in the invitation email
Evaluation and Moderation Process	April 2017 – July 2017
Announcement of Results	2^ndhalf of 2017

Public Briefing

A Public Briefing for the grant call was held on 1 Dec 2016, 12:00pm. The briefing slides are available here.

Submission

For terms and conditions of the Grant, please refer to the Enabling Innovation Grant Public Documentand the Enabling Innovation Grant Public Document Annex A.

Project proposals will be submitted through a two-stage process, as follows:

Project Abstract. Project Teams are to first submit an abstract of their proposed Project, using the “Project Abstract Submission Template”.

Participants shall furnish all necessary information and documents as required in the template. Two hardcopies of the Project Abstract should reach MOH no later than 23 Jan 2017 at 1700hrs.

All Project Abstracts received will be preliminarily assessed for compliance with the eligibility criteria and scope. Shortlisted eligible Project Teams will be asked to flesh out their proposed Project in greater detail for the second stage.
Project Proposal. MOH will inform the respective Leads of shortlisted Project teams via email to submit their detailed Project Proposal using the “Project Proposal Submission Template” that will be emailed to them. Project Teams shall furnish all necessary information and documents as required in the template. Two hardcopies of the Project Proposal should reach MOH.

In addition to submitting hard copies, applicants shall email soft copies of their Project Abstract and Project Proposal to NIC_Ageing@moh.gov.sg by their respective deadlines.

Documents for Downloading

Supporting Agencies:

National Research Foundation (NRF)
Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF)
Agency for Integrated Care (AIC)

Contact Us

For any enquiries on the Enabling Innovation Grant or the National Innovation Challenge, please email us at NIC_Ageing@moh.gov.sg.