Speech by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean at the Official Opening of the T-Lab Building

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, President of the National University of Singapore
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Technology is key to the SAF's fighting capabilities. Our investments in technology are carefully focused on those areas that bring us the highest operational benefits. These are areas where we have unique requirements and need to tailor or tune our weapons and systems to our situation, or where access to such critical technologies is not easily available unless we develop them ourselves.

Today, our defence technology capabilities can be found within an entire defence ecosystem comprising the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), DSO National Laboratories, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the local defence industry, and the research institutes of A*STAR and our universities. MINDEF has over the years embraced a strategy of collaborative partnerships with local and overseas research institutes and centres of learning to expand our capacity and tap innovative ideas from various sources. Collaboration with technology partners overseas, such as in the US, UK, Australia, France, Sweden and Israel, also helps benchmark our technologies with the best out there. The bilateral partnerships that MINDEF has forged have paved the way for other forms of cooperation between local and international partners. For example, in 2004, DSTA and NUS collaborated with Supelec and ONERA, France's leading university and aerospace laboratory respectively, to establish SONDRA, a joint research centre for advanced electromagnetics and radar R&D. Set up in France, SONDRA is our first overseas laboratory and complements the work that is done in Singapore.

MINDEF's partnerships with our local universities and research institutes have been mutually beneficial. They not only provide a natural source of scientific and engineering talent and expertise to augment the research and resources of DSTA and DSO, but also allow many accomplished researchers to challenge themselves with cutting edge defence work. The challenging nature of defence work motivates and attracts good researchers to the universities and research institutes, strengthening their repute globally. This convergence of interest between defence science and academia has brought new ideas, innovation and vibrancy to our R&D ecosystem.

In recent years, we have increased our engagement with our universities and research institutes for upstream R&D that is then translated by DSO, DSTA and the defence industry into advanced capabilities for the SAF. In 2000, research partnerships were formalised with the signing of the Strategic Partnership MOUs between MINDEF and the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The cornerstone of MINDEF's strategic partnership with NUS is the establishment of the Temasek Laboratories or TL@NUS in 2000. Over the past decade, TL@NUS has made significant contributions to the SAF with its research in selected areas of science and technology critical to Singapore's defence and security. One example is the area of ferrite development for electromagnetic applications which combines cobalt, nickel and zinc compounds to reduce electromagnetic interference between electronic devices. This technology is particularly useful for compact platforms such as our ships which operate many different electronic systems in confined spaces. TL@NUS is also currently conducting research into a "dielectric barrier discharge" plasma device, which could eventually enable unmanned aerial vehicles to be launched with a take-off distance shortened by up to two-thirds.

As TL@NUS celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, I am pleased that both MINDEF and NUS are further cementing their strategic partnership through the opening of this new T-LAB building. A joint development effort by MINDEF and NUS, this building will provide the TL@NUS researchers with their own in-house, advanced experimental facilities such as a closed-loop low-speed wind-tunnel, an antenna test chamber and a free-space material measurement lab to meet their unique research needs. These facilities will enable TL@NUS to undertake cutting-edge research to meet the SAF's technology needs and demands that will grow in complexity and sophistication in the years ahead. The new building will also bring together under one roof about 100 research staff working on potentially related areas who would otherwise be operating out of different schools and laboratories spread across the NUS campus. This co-location of research capabilities will foster closer interaction among the researchers and enhance TL@NUS' research on electromagnetics, aeronautics, guidance and control systems, information security, signal processing, cognitive science and non-linear dynamics. MINDEF is committed to maintaining and strengthening the research capabilities that have been built up in TL@NUS and other research centres in the universities. To enhance our capacity to generate great ideas and to translate them into cutting-edge capabilities, MINDEF launched the Temasek Research Fellowship (TRF) last year to recruit outstanding young researchers at post-doctoral level to lead research teams in either NUS or NTU on technologies that are relevant to defence.

I am very pleased that two individuals have been offered the 2010 Temasek Research Fellowship to undertake research in advanced materials and quantum mechanics. And in June this year, we signed an MOU with NUS to establish the Centre for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Research or CIDER. CIDER will enable the SAF to develop an enhanced epidemiology capability for prevention of infectious diseases, real-time surveillance and early warning, and evidence-based response to disease outbreaks. I would like to thank NUS for its strong support in working together with our defence community to build technologies, infrastructure and capabilities that have contributed to the cutting-edge of Singapore's defence. The T-LAB Building stands as a symbol of the strong partnership between MINDEF and NUS. It is my pleasure now to officially open the T-LAB Building in NUS. I wish you continued success in the years ahead. Thank you.

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