Grants
Please note that the last grant call under RIE2025 will be the July 2025 grant call. There is no planned grant call in January 2026. Subject to approval of the RIE2030 framework, the first grant call under RIE2030 is expected to be launched in July 2026.
The Open Fund - Young Individual Research Grant (OF-YIRG) is a sub-category of OF-IRG and a step for the new investigator to a first independent national level grant. Applicants with substantial research experience will not be accepted under this sub-category. The OF-YIRG is provided to support the conduct of research proposals in basic, translational and clinical research that are relevant to human health and potential, including research that looks at the causes, consequences, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases.
OF-YIRG is open to applications in all research areas. Applications are assessed based on scientific merit at the international level and relevance to Singapore, but should prioritisation be required between meritorious applications, the following seven disease areas have been identified as national priorities for research:
Selection of successful proposals would be based on the following evaluation criteria:
* The HHP Domain’s vision for RIE2025 is to be a leading hub that transforms and protects health, advances human potential and creates economic value through excellence in research and its application for Singapore, Asia and the world.
Only one Principal Investigator (PI) is allowed per application. Applicants applying as Principal Investigator are required to fulfil the following criteria at the point of application:
There will be two grant calls per year (January and July).
The OF-YIRG will provide a funding quantum of up to $325,000 (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs^) and up to 3 years.
^Indirect costs is not applicable for research scholarship budget
It is mandatory for all applications to be submitted and endorsed by the Host Institution’s Director of Research (DOR) online via IGMS by 6 February 2025, 5pm. We will not entertain any late submissions or submissions from individual applicants without HI DOR endorsement.
Please download the OF-YIRG Application Guide for more information.
The composition of the OF-YIRG Local Review Panel (2025-2026) is listed in the table below.
S/N | Name | Institution |
---|---|---|
1 | Prof Lisa Ng (Co-Chair) |
Executive Director, A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs Executive Director, Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR |
2 | Prof Patrick Tan (Co-Chair) | Senior Vice Dean for Research, Duke-NUS Chief Scientific Officer, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR |
3 | A/Prof Adeline Ng | Senior Consultant, Department of Neurology, National Neuroscience Institute Director, Special Projects, Office of Academic Affairs, National Neuroscience Institute |
4 | Prof Brendan Jenkins |
Program Head, Tumour Inflammation and Immunotherapy Program Lab Head, Cancer and Immune Signalling Laboratory South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI) |
5 | Prof Cameron Simmons | Executive Director, Global Delivery for Mosquito Program, Monash University, Australia |
6 | A/Prof Catherine Ong | Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme, Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore Assistant Dean (Research), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Head of NUHS Clinician-Scientist Academy Principal Investigator, Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) Senior Consultant, Division of Infectious Diseases, National University Hospital |
7 | Prof Costanza Emanueli |
British Heart Foundation Chair in Cardiovascular Science at the Imperial College |
8 | A/Prof Deng Lih Wen | Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore |
9 | Prof Giorgio Sesti | Full Professor of Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome Director of the Post-Graduate Course of Internal Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome Chief of Internal Medicine Unit, University Hospital Sant’Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome |
10 | Prof Gunter Meister | Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Preclinical medicine Full professor (chair, biochemistry), University of Regensburg |
11 | A/Prof Helen Zhou | Associate Professor, Centre for Sleep and Cognition, Healthy Longevity & Human Potential TRP, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore |
12 | A/Prof Heng Chew Kiat | Associate Professor, Research Director, Department of Paediatrics, Khoo Teck Puat – National University Children’s Medical Institute, National University Health System |
13 | Dr Janos Kanczler | Lecturer, Bone & Joint Research Group, Human Development & Health, Institute of Developmental Sciences, University of Southampton, UK |
14 | A/Prof Ko, Ho Owen |
Assistant Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
15 | Asst Prof Li Yinghui | Nanyang Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University Joint Principal Investigator in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR |
16 | A/Prof Liu Nan | Director, Duke-NUS AI + Medical Sciences Initiative (DAISI) Co-Director, SingHealth Duke-NUS AI in Medicine Institute (AIMI) Associate Professor, Centre for Quantitative Medicine Duke-NUS Medical School |
17 | Dr Michael Edwards | Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine and Infections at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London |
18 | Prof Michael Weller | Chairman, Department of Neurology, University Hospital and University of Zurich |
19 | A/Prof Na Jie |
Associate Professor, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
20 | Prof Patrick Kehoe | Professor of Translational Dementia Research, University of Bristol |
21 | Prof Riccardo Dolcetti | Head, Clinical and Translational Immunotherapy, Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre/ Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre/ University of Melbourne Honorary Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane |
22 | Dr Shyam Prabhakar | Senior Group Leader, Systems Biology and Data Analytics Associate Director, Spatial and Single Cell Systems Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR |
23 | A/Prof Su Xinyi | Executive Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR |
24 | Prof Subhash Vasudevan | Professor, Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School |
25 | Asst/Prof Tee Wee Wei | Senior Principal Investigator, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR |
26 | A/Prof Wang Mei Casey | Associate Professor and Principal Investigator, Program of Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS Medical School |
27 | Prof Wei Dong Le | Professor and Vice Dean, Medical School and Director of Neurology Institute, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences-Sichuan Provincial Hospital Professor and Director of Center for Translational Research of Neurology Disease, and Vice President of 1st Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University, China |
28 | A/Prof Yusuf Ali | Associate Professor of Metabolic Disease, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
Applicants are not allowed to approach any of the panel members to discuss or solicit information related to their application review or funding decisions. NMRC may impose a suspension and/or debarment on such applicants.