Kickstart Initiative is a new translational medicine programme that helps bring promising biomedical research projects to market. It provides a supportive biomedical eco-system for knowledge exchange between entrepreneurs, academia, and other stakeholders. Kickstart is a venture creation initiative supporting innovative research ideas along the commercialisation path to market. We value great ideas and we work with our commercial partners to jointly incubate biomedical research that can potentially make a global impact, and help early research discoveries overcome many of the hurdles to commercialisation.

Under the programme, Principal Investigators (PIs) of shortlisted research projects will work closely with a commercial partner that acts as a collaborator and help drive the path towards bringing the innovation to market. In the second stage, a new company with both the PI and the commercial partner will invest minimally a matching amount and jointly act as the co-founder to accelerate the commercialisation journey.

The programme will focus on translating innovations in the fastest growing areas such as therapeutics, diagnostics, medical technology and devices, surgical robotics, as well as digital health. Beyond the focus on the NUS Medicine key research areas, we also engage NIC members to create new businesses and commercialisation activities to support the life sciences start-up ecosystem.

“The programme is born out of a need to help scientists and researchers transform their groundbreaking research ideas into practical applications. We have a talent pool here at NUS Medicine with a ready pipeline of novel and innovative biomedical R&D projects. The challenge, as with many other sectors, is the lack of entrepreneurial expertise, funding and support to translate these ideas and innovations into practical applications for the benefit of the population. Kickstart aims to bridge this gap by providing know-how on how to direct and leverage research for translational purposes, guidance for the commercialization process as well as access to investor funding.

In the longer term, we aim to build a thriving ecosystem of scientists, researchers, government regulators, investors, corporates and venture capitalists within the biomedical sector. For a start, our goal is to support 4 to 7 projects a year,”

– Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of NUS Medicine

Leading global investment solutions companies such as Milltrust International Group and Heritas Capital Management have been appointed as the primary commercial partners for Kickstart. They will play a key advisory role in managing the programme, including evaluating projects for their scientific value and potential commercial success, assessing projected investments, and reviewing, tracking and auditing the progress of selected projects.

The Kickstart team is continuously engaging with external parties to bring on board the support of more commercial partners, government agencies, and healthcare institutions.

Eligibility

The Kickstart Initiative is open to all NUS Medicine faculty, scientists, and clinicians

Stage of readiness

• Submitted projects must be 1-2 years away from Proof-of-concept
• The Principal Investigator (PI) must hold a position within NUS Medicine

Contact Us

Interested applicants, partners, and collaborators are to email Dr Christina Tong at christina@partner.nus.edu.sg