This programme of interdisciplinary research contributes to the Future of Society with the development of an evidence-based methodology for co-designing policies to guide the ethical and socially responsible implementation of new technologies in Singapore. The PI has previously developed an innovative methodology called Collective Reflective Equilibrium in Practice (CREP). This involves bringing ethical concepts, theories and principles into maximum coherence with public intuitions to form policy. CREP is innovative because it moves iteratively between multiple layers of integrated normative analyses and empirical evidence to co-produce substantive practical solutions in consultation with key stakeholders and the wider publics. This methodology will be applied to three strategic Singaporean technology initiatives: the National Precision Medicine strategy, PRISM (SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine), and Project RESET.

With funding from the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020–2025 plan, Singapore has launched two major agencies to oversee the implementation of genome-based applications: PRECISE (Precision Health Research, Singapore) and ACTRIS (Advanced Cell Therapy and Research Institute). Over the next 5–10 years, PRECISE plans to recruit one million Singaporeans into the National Precision Medicine strategy. ACTRIS will support the development of high cost novel cellular therapies. Genomics is also being harnessed in Project RESET (Redirecting immune, lipid and metabolic drivers of early cardiovascular disease) to develop polygenic risk scores that, in combination with environmental risk factors, could predict risks for common diseases such as heart failure. In collaboration with leaders of PRECISE, PRISM (SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Precision Medicine), ACTRIS and the RESET initiatives, we will apply the CREP methodology to co-design policy specific to Singapore with empirical evidence generated from unique sources of primary Singaporean data and Patient-Public Involvement and Engagement.

These ambitious initiatives raise societal and ethical challenges that will require important trade-offs between values, such as utility, cost-efficiency, privacy, harm minimisation, public benefit, fairness, security and accountability. Policy-relevant ethical analyses should be context specific to account for complex social, cultural, and institutional norms that shape how societies understand, prioritise and weigh specific values. Singapore is an ethnically diverse, multicultural Asian nation with distinct socio-political histories, regulatory infrastructure and ethico-legal frameworks. Yet very few studies have systematically examined the norms and values relevant to advanced technology in Singapore, or indeed Asia, with the bioethics, health law and social science literature predominantly coming from Northern America, Europe and Australia. Application of CREP together with empirical analysis of Singaporean values will enable the creation of Singapore-specific policies that are culturally appropriate, evidence based and ethically justified in terms of terms of Singaporean values: CREPSING.