SINGAPORE: Singapore's private sector R&D has received a new boost - the Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (SIIRD) is investing S$10.6 million in four new groundbreaking projects.

This follows a S$10 million investment in six R&D projects in the second half of last year.

One of the four projects aims to develop an innovative platform for indexing and searching audio content, with a focus on telephone recordings.

This is targeted at two main market segments: large customer care and call centres and the media industry.

The SIIRD is a co-operation between the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) in Israel to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D projects between companies in Singapore and Israel.

With SIIRD's support, up to 50 per cent of the eligible R&D costs of joint projects will receive funding. To date, SIIRD has approved 95 projects with a total research investment of S$141 million.


- CNA/so