Open Fund: Young Individual Research Grant Program (Singapore)

Open Fund Young Individual Research Grant (OF-YIRG) is a sub-category of OF-IRG and a step for the new investigator to a first independent national level grant. Applicants with substantial research experience will not be accepted under this sub-category.

Themes

• OF-YIRG is open to applications in all research areas. Applications are assessed based on scientific merit at the international level and relevance to Singapore, but should prioritisation be required between meritorious applications, the following seven disease areas have been identified as national priorities for research:
  • Cancers and neoplasms
  • Cardiovascular
  • Eye
  • Infection
  • Mental health
  • Metabolic and endocrine
  • Neurological

Funding Information

• The OF-YIRG will provide a funding quantum of up to $325,000 (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs) and up to 3 years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Only one Principal Investigator (PI) is allowed per application. Applicants applying as Principal Investigator are required to fulfil the following criteria at the point of application:
  • Holds a primary appointment in a local publicly funded institution and salaried by the institution from time of award.
  • PIs should have PhD or MD/MBBS/BDS qualifications. (Exceptions would be made on a case-by-case basis).
  • Has a laboratory or clinical research program that carries out research in Singapore
  • Holds a minimum of 9 months employment (per calendar year) with local Singapore institution(s). Upon award, the PI must agree to fulfil at least 6 months of residency in Singapore for each calendar year over the duration of the grant award.
  • Has no outstanding report from previous BMRC, NMRC grants, and other national grants
  • For proposals involving patients, the PI should be SMC registered; or should be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC registered Co-Is or collaborators.
• Additional Eligibility Criteria for Young IRG:
  • Applicants who are applying for the Young IRGs are strongly encouraged to work with a mentor for guidance in their research. This mentoring will provide support for a period of supervised research leading eventually to the investigators conducting larger scale research projects independently. Please note that the OFYIRG is intended to fund a new investigator’s independent project, and not to provide additional funding for the supervisor’s and/or mentor’s project.
  • Applicants must have completed their PhD or MBBS/MD/BDS within the past 7 years and past 10 years respectively:
    • Exceptions would be considered on a case-by-case basis to grant a one-year extension to the 7-year post-PhD and 10-year post-MBBS cap eligibility criterion for applicants who declared that their productivity have been affected by COVID-19
    • PIs are required to submit DOR-endorsed request with justifications through the HI ORE at least 3 weeks before grant call closing deadline for NMRC’s assessment on eligibility.
  • Applicants must not have received external competitive funding exceeding $500,000 (direct costs only) within the last 5 years to conduct their own research project as the PI.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Awardees of the following grants will not be eligible for YIRG:
  • A Star Investigatorship
  • NRF Fellowship
  • MOE Tier 2 and 3 grants
  • MOH/NMRC IRG-equivalent grants
• Applicants must indicate how the proposed area of work would be distinct from their current supervisor’s existing research.The applicant’s current supervisor should not be a co-investigator on the proposal.
• Upon the award of the YIRG, the Office of Research will be required to provide written confirmation from either the applicant’s Head of Institution or supervisor to describe the steps the institution will take to demonstrate its commitment to his/her career development. This must include provision of appropriate space to carry out the work proposed, but may also include investment in the equipment necessary to establish the laboratory, access to shared institutional resource, provision of mentorship and career development support etc.

Evaluation Criteria

• Selection of successful proposals would be based on the following evaluation criteria:
  • Quality of the science
  • Capability of the research performers to conduct the research
  • Objectives of the research programme in context of HHP goals

Application Requirements

• Please prepare your application using the templates available on the IGMS online submission system and upload these documents to the relevant sections in IGMS:
  • Research proposal
  • CV template (PI, Co-I/Collab, Mentor)
  • Research Team Signatories and Other Supporting Details
  • Data Sharing Plan
  • Any softcopy document must be uploaded to IGMS in Word Document or PDF format (please do not submit scanned PDF format except for signatories). Please adhere to the page limit where specified and reformat softcopy such that all blank or irrelevant pages are removed.
  • The applicants are required to complete the grant submission using the IGMS online submission system.
  • For applications involving mentor, please upload the completed mentor CV under the Mentor section in IGMS.
  • Once you have completed your application in IGMS, please proceed to download a copy for your safekeeping.
  • Resubmission attempts are capped at two times, and please note that funding is not guaranteed for resubmitted proposal. (Resubmission refers to proposals resubmitted based on RP/External Reviewers’ comments. It is not a re-written proposal from a new perspective. If more than 50% of the proposal is to be revised, it should be submitted as a new application).
  • In any single grant call, each PI is allowed to submit up to one application per grant type.
  • Note that Co-Investigators need to hold at least an adjunct position in a local public institution. Researchers from overseas institutions or private companies can only participate as collaborators. The terms of collaboration with overseas research institutions and private companies must conform to NMRC’s existing policies.
  • PI’s, Co-Investigators’ and Collaborators’ CVs are limited to 3 pages. Please indicate NA if the required information is not applicable. Please take note that NMRC will not be responsible for any missing information not provided in the CV.
  • Mentor’s CV is limited to 2 pages (for applications involving mentor)
  • Use Arial font size 10 for all attachment/text.
  • Plagiarism (without permission from author or reference made to source) will be referred to Host Institution for investigation and may be subjected to disciplinary actions.
• Please note that applications are subject to rejection upon submission if:
  • Any of the required documents was not submitted (Please refer to Read-Me file for the list of required documents)
  • Wrong template (e.g., outdated, different programme’s) was used for any of the required documents (Please use latest templates as available in IGMS)
  • Any of the Proposal or CV documents exceeds page limits
  • Missing or incomplete declarations (e.g. past funding received, concurrent grant applications)
  • No late submission or revision to the submitted application will be entertained after the closing date.

For more information, visit NMRC.