To address future food demands, the National Research Foundation (NRF) has awarded S$30 million in research grants to three projects under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP) Funding Scheme.
The Singapore-based researchers had proposed projects to study a type of seabass that will breed easily and grows twice as fast as the normal variety, disease-resistent rice strains and fish that will be less susceptible to infection.
The three proposals were selected after a rigorous competitive process which started in October last year, with the submission of 35 white papers which responded to the NRF’s grant call on “Meeting Future Food Demands for Singapore”.
Eleven were picked and their researchers asked to flesh out full proposals, which were sent for international peer reviews. Finally, the NRF’s International Evaluation Panel met to choose three.
The CRP Funding Scheme offers funding support of up to S$10 million per proposal, over three to five years. CRP grant calls are announced twice a year.
The NRF also announced on Wednesday a research grant to develop advanced membrane technology for large-scale wastewater treatment and seawater desalination.
