Singapore’s manufacturing, agriculture, and pharmaceutical innovations DIGITALIZATION OF ECONOMY: MODEL FACTORY @ A*STAR
The Model Factory @ A*STAR is a publicprivate partnership platform where companies across industries can learn about, co-develop and test-bed advanced manufacturing technologies to be more competitive and ready for Industry 4.0. It resides in two A*STAR research institutes: the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) and the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC).
Launched in 2017, the 6,500-sq. ft. Model Factory @ SIMTech features a pilot-scale production line that enables companies to try out digitalization technologies in a learning environment without disruption to business operations. In 2018, A*STAR opened a complementary Model Factory @ ARTC, a 15,000 sq. ft. facility featuring Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things, virtual and augmented reality, collaborative robots, and automated guided vehicles.
The Model Factory program is one of three complementary public-private partnership platforms under A*STAR’s Future of Manufacturing Initiative launched in 2015 to help transform Singapore into a technology innovation hub for manufacturing.
AGRI-INNOVATION: ARCHISEN’S URBAN FARMING SYSTEM
Archisen Pte Ltd. is a local startup that designs, develops, and operates systems and solutions to grow fresh local produce in urban cities. Leveraging the use of IOT and data analytics, the company has developed a smart urban farming system to improve farm management processes and crop yields.
Archisen has been working with different institutes within A*STAR, such as the Bioinformatics Institute, to adopt and codevelop technologies around data science (eg. image analytics algorithms), smarter LED lighting and real-time detection of nutrient composition. A*ccelerate, A*STAR’s commercialization arm, also helped to provide IP advice to Archisen.
As a result, Archisen was able to accelerate the development of their intelligent urban farm management platform, Croptron, which is currently being deployed at a new indoor farm to continuously monitor plant growth. By using sensor and other farm datacrop yields is optimized through growing more with less resources.
MEDTECH INNOVATION: THE ASEAN DIAGNOSTICS DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
The ASEAN DxD Initiative was endorsed at the 76th ASEAN COSTI in 2018 to facilitate the co-development of healthcare diagnostics solutions across ASEAN Member States (AMS). The Philippines and Singapore are co-leading the ASEAN DxD Initiative, which aims to promote cross-border public and private partnerships within Southeast Asia to commercialize diagnostics technologies and products. It leverages the Philippines’ ASEAN Network for Drugs, Diagnostics, Vaccines and Traditional Medicines Innovation’s (ASEAN-NDI) platform in connecting AMS, as well as Singapore’s Diagnostics Development (DxD) Hub’s capabilities in building diagnostics products.
Since its launch in 2014, A*STAR’s DxD Hub has worked with the research and clinical communities to deliver commercially viable developed-in-Singapore diagnostic technologies. It has evaluated over 400 technologies, and delivered nine products with Singapore-based companies, including diagnostic tests for cancers and selection of immunotherapy drugs.
Medtech is a key growth sector for Southeast Asia, and the ASEAN DxD Initiative aims to address the rapidly growing healthcare demand driven by population growth and a rising middle class. It will work towards improving human health, to address unmet clinical needs and grow the healthcare industry in ASEAN, as well as accelerate the development of diagnostics intellectual property in ASEAN into clinically validated diagnostic devices that are ready for market adoption.
FORTITUDE TEST KIT 2.0
A*STAR’s Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Bioinformatics Institute (BII), and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) co-developed the Fortitude Kit 2.0 test kit, which can detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 quickly and with high accuracy.
The test, validated by TTSH, is the first “ready-made” hospital lab diagnostic test kit that has received Singapore Health Sciences Authority’s (HSA) Provisional Authorisation for clinical use.
The Diagnostics Development (DxD) Hub, a national initiative led by A*STAR’s commercialization arm, A*ccelerate, further supported the optimization, verification, validation, and production of these tests.
Since February 2020, Fortitude Kit 2.0 has been implemented in 13 Singapore hospitals and labs, public and private. As part of Singapore’s efforts to curb the spread of the disease, Fortitude Kits were some of the medical supplies donated by the Singapore Government to several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The kit has also been procured by agencies and healthcare institutions around the world, including those in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the United States. To date, the kits have been deployed in more than 20 countries globally. A*STAR is currently transferring the technology and know-how to companies with a non-exclusive license to scale-up and manufacture the diagnostic kits to fulfil local and international demand.