The Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (SIIRD) promotes joint industrial R&D projects between companies from Israel and Singapore, which would lead to successful commercialization. SIIRD is a co-operation between the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) in Israel.

In its latest round of Board meeting in November 2006 in Singapore, SIIRD approved funding of US$2.6 million to 5 pairs of companies to embark on new projects, which would be conducted in both Israel and Singapore. A total research investment of US$5.8 millions would be created.

One of the approved projects was between Singapore Technologies Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems) Pte Ltd (Singapore) and RaySat Antenna Systems Ltd (Israel), which aimed to develop the Mobile Digital Satellite News Gathering (M-DSNG) system to enable M-DSNG crew to transmit and receive programming on the move via a dedicated two-way satellite link.

Another approved project between Manusoft Technologies Pte Ltd (Singapore) and SolidCAM Ltd (Israel) aimed to develop an Electrode Design and Manufacturing Solution for the CNC and EDM processes.

Other participating companies include: Singapore Technologies Kinetics Pte Ltd (Singapore) and Silentium Ltd (Israel); Light10 Labs Pte Ltd (Singapore) and Micro Components Ltd (Israel); UTAC Ltd (Singapore) and M-Systems Ltd (Israel).

To date, SIIRD has approved nearly 63 R&D projects of total research investment of US$65 millions. Besides funding R&D projects, SIIRD also provides free assistance in locating partners from Singapore and Israel interested in R&D collaboration in a variety of technological fields.

For more information, visit the SIIRD website at http://www.siird.com