A*Star to open up 17 facilities to SMEs under Tech Access scheme

SINGAPORE — To spur the manufacturing sector towards adopting technology, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) will give companies access to 17 advanced manufacturing facilities for a start, under a new scheme that is set to kick in this September.

The agency is projecting that there will be between 200 and 300 bookings over a year for these facilities, which also includes access to the equipment and training expertise.

Announced during the Government’s Budget this year, the Tech Access scheme aims to support Singapore companies, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector, in using advanced machine tools for prototyping and testing. This includes the use of specialised equipment such as robotised 3-D scanners and high-pressure cold sprays. Fuller details on other equipment available will also be known by September.

A*Star chairman Lim Chuan Poh said: “For an SME, the last thing you want is to spend a few million dollars buying the latest equipment, only to find out later on that it doesn’t pay back. You want to be able to sense whether this is a good investment.”

He added that the Tech Access scheme allows SMEs to “go through” this “journey”, and if they are convinced, “hopefully they’ll migrate and have their own equipment onsite and on their own manufacturing facility”.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday (April 24) to give a report on the research institution’s performance last year, Mr Lim said that the focus on manufacturing was in tandem with the recommendation by the Government’s Committee on the Future Economy, that Singapore maintained a “globally competitive” manufacturing sector at around one-fifth of the Gross Domestic Product.

“To encourage multinational corporations (MNCs) to continue to pick Singapore as a choice location for their high-value manufacturing activities, we must be a first mover in growth sectors, and a location where they can pilot and test-bed cutting-edge technologies,” Mr Lim said.

Last year, A*Star worked on more than 1,700 projects with industry players and attracted S$231.6 million on industry research and development (R&D) spending. This was lower than the average annual spending of the previous five years, which totalled S$1.6 billion.

A spokesperson from the agency told TODAY that between the financial years of 2015 and 2016, it has “ sustained the momentum of the number of industry projects undertaken and industry R&D spending”.

More than half of the projects last year were linked to manufacturing, and the agency also licensed more than 200 technologies to companies, of which six in 10 belonged to the manufacturing sector.

Under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan, a record S$19 billion will be set aside for science and technology research for five years until 2020. Four domains were identified in the five-year plan based on areas of competitive advantage or national needs: Advanced manufacturing and engineering, health and biomedical sciences, services and digital economy, and urban solutions and sustainability.

Probed on its expenditure in the first year, Mr Lim would only say that the funding would be split “fairly proportionate” over the years. “So when you complete the year, you complete about 20 per cent of the allocation,” he said.

He added that white-space funds, or money allocated to promising new research areas and enterprise activities, have yet to be touched.

Coming up later this year as well are two model factories at A*Star’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre and its Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, located at CleanTech Park next to Nanyang Technological University.

Companies will be able to try the latest manufacturing technologies and work with stakeholders to test new solutions at these factories. As it is, SMEs such as CKE Manufacturing, Feinmetall and Sankei Eagle have already expressed interest.

Tech Depot, which offers SMEs technologies to digitise their workflow and improve their productivity, went live on the SME Portal last week. Another online platform, the A*Star Collaborative Commerce Marketplace — meant for companies to source for suppliers or seek business partners — has seen more than 250 sign-ups since May last year.