National Research Fund Act 2006 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Administration of Fund
10. Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council
Feedback & supportThere is established a body called the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council comprising any persons from the private sector and public sector that the Minister thinks fit, and whose functions are —
Council
“Council” means the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council established under section 10;
to provide advice and guidance to the Government in the formulation of its policies and laws on all types of research and development activities and innovation in Singapore; and
research and development activities
“research and development activities” means —(a)systematic, investigative or experimental activities that involve innovation and are carried on either wholly or partly within Singapore for the purpose of —(i)increasing or acquiring new knowledge (whether or not that knowledge will have specific practical application); or(ii)creating new or improved materials, products, devices, processes or services; or(b)other activities that are carried on either wholly or partly within Singapore for a purpose related to the carrying out of activities of the kind mentioned in paragraph (a) or incidental or conducive to the attainment or furtherance of the purposes mentioned in that paragraph, including —(i)scientific and technical information services (such as data collection) to support activities of the kind mentioned in paragraph (a);(ii)building expenditure incurred in the acquisition or construction of a building, or of an extension, alteration or improvement to, or of maintenance of a building used or to be used for in activities of the kind mentioned in paragraph (a);(iii)training and management of manpower for activities of the kind mentioned in paragraph (a);(iv)feasibility studies with a view to establishing the strategic direction of any specific research and development activity; and(v)any other work or services (including patenting, licensing and other activities) necessary to support activities of the kind mentioned in paragraph (a).(2) For the purposes of this section, the following activities must not be taken to be systematic, investigative or experimental activities:(a)market research, market testing or market development, and sale promotion (including consumer survey);(b)testing and standardisation;(c)prospecting, exploring or drilling for minerals, petroleum or natural gas for the purpose of discovering deposits, determining more precisely the location of deposits or determining the size or quality of deposits;(d)the making of cosmetic modifications or stylistic changes to products, processes or production methods;(e)pre-production activities such as demonstration of commercial viability, tooling-up and trial runs;(f)routine collection of information, except as part of the research and development process;(g)preparation for teaching;(h)routine software development;(i)legal and administrative aspects of patenting, licensing and other activities, unless mentioned in subsection (1)(b)(v);(j)activities associated with complying with statutory requirements or standards;(k)any activity related to the reproduction of a commercial product or process by a physical examination of an existing system or plan, blueprints, detailed specifications or publicly available information. In this Act,
to lead in the promotion of all aspects of research and development activities and innovation in Singapore, by —
identifying and promoting activities and programmes that will make Singapore more internationally competitive; and
alerting the public and private sectors to any new business opportunities that arise from the exploitation of results of any research and development activities or innovation.