COMPETITIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMME (CRP) APPLICATION FORM FOR LETTER OF INTENT (LOI)
All information is treated in confidence. The information is furnished to the National Research Foundation with the understanding
that it shall be used or disclosed for evaluation, reference and reporting purposes.
SECTION I: All fields are mandatory.
Proposal ID: NRF201X_CRP00X_XXX (generated by RITA)
Proposal Title: XX (Bold, Font 12)
Budget Requested (Excluding
Indirect Costs): S$ XX
Role
Period of Support: XX years
Host Institution (please indicate
only one): XX
Project Team Members (Please add/delete rows where necessary)
Name
Designation1
Department/
% effort within
Institution
project2
% of time
committed on
the project3
Lead PI
Team PI (1)
Team PI (2)
Team PI (3)
Team PI (4)
Team PI (5)
Team PI (6)
Collaborator
(1)
Collaborator
(2)
Collaborator
(3)
Total:
Please include ORCID ID for Lead PI and all Team PIs.
1
Please state RSE grade for A*STAR’s researcher.
Represent % effort spent by the researcher in the project relative to his/her other team members. The total must add up to 100%.
3 Represent % effort spent by the researcher in the project relative to his/her other job scope.
2
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CLASSIFICATION: Please indicate the field of research by selecting one of the relevant boxes below:
Physical sciences, engineering and computer sciences
Life sciences
If you have selected “Life Sciences” option, please complete the next section on “Research Activity Codes” below.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY CODE (Applicable only for Health & Biomedical Sciences (HBMS) proposals)
Please select the code(s) applicable to your research from the following list with an “X”.
1 Underpinning Research
1.1 Normal biological development and functioning
1.3 Chemical and physical sciences
1.4 Methodologies and measurements
1.5 Resources and infrastructure (underpinning)
1.2 Psychological and socioeconomic processes
2 Aetiology
2.1 Biological and endogenous factors
2.5 Research design and methodologies
(aetiology)
2.2 Factors relating to physical environment
2.3 Psychological, social and economic factors
2.6 Resources and infrastructure (aetiology)
2.4 Surveillance and distribution
3 Prevention of Disease and Conditions, and Promotion of Well-Being
3.1 Primary prevention interventions to modify
3.3 Nutrition and chemoprevention
behaviours or promote well-being
3.4 Vaccines
3.2 Interventions to alter physical and biological
3.5 Resources and infrastructure (prevention)
environmental risks
4 Detection, Screening and Diagnosis
4.1 Discovery and preclinical testing of markers and
4.4 Population screening
technologies
4.2 Evaluation of markers and technologies
4.5 Resources and infrastructure (detection)
4.3 Influences and impact
5 Development of Treatments and Therapeutic Interventions
5.1 Pharmaceuticals
5.6 Psychological and behavioural
5.2 Cellular and gene therapies
5.7 Physical
5.3 Medical devices
5.8 Complementary
5.4 Surgery
5.9 Resources and infrastructure (development
of treatments)
5.5 Radiotherapy
6 Evaluation of Treatments and Therapeutic Interventions
6.1 Pharmaceuticals
6.6 Psychological and behavioural
6.2 Cellular and gene therapies
6.7 Physical
6.3 Medical devices
6.8 Complementary
6.4 Surgery
6.9 Resources and infrastructure (evaluation of
treatments)
6.5 Radiotherapy
7 Management of Diseases and Conditions
7.1 Individual care needs
7.3 Management and decision making
7.2 End of life care
7.4 Resources and infrastructure (disease
management)
8 Health and Social Care Services Research
8.1 Organisation and delivery of services
8.4 Research design and methodologies
8.2 Health and welfare economics
8.5 Resources and infrastructure (health
services)
8.3 Policy, ethics and research governance
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SECTION II
Content in this section must not exceed 5 pages; otherwise the application may be rejected
without review. All fields must be completed. Diagrams, references and Gantt chart should be
attached as appendices (excluded from the page limit). Please use Arial font size 12, single line
spacing and default margins of this document.
Resubmission:
Is this a re-submission from the previous calls4?
Yes
No
If yes, please provide a one page summary stating the differences and improvements from past
submissions. Relevant sections revised in the LOI must be highlighted accordingly.
A. Research Objectives: What are you trying to do? Clearly state the problem to be addressed with
neither jargon nor acronyms and explain why it is significant.
B. Assessment on Current Development: How is it done today, who are the leading researchers
studying the problem, and what are the limitations of their current approaches?
C. Proposed Approach: What is your approach? How does it differ from what others are working
on and address the performance of this technology in quantitative terms? Please provide a
competitive scan of your proposed technology/system/solution as compared to existing state-ofthe-art developments. Describe previous works and any preliminary results that would help
support this proposal. Why do you think your proposal will be successful?
D. Program Plan: How are financial and human resources organised to accomplish the objective?
What are the technical risks and how would these be mitigated? Outline the schedule for all
phases of the proposed programme – a Gantt chart can be attached as an annex.
E. Role of team members: What are the roles and contribution of the Team PIs and collaborators?
Why are you and your team members particularly qualified to do this? Briefly describe the plans
for interaction among the team member(s) and with collaborators in achieving the research
objectives.
F. Outcomes & Deliverables: What are the scientific milestones/ metrics that can be used to
measure success at mid-term review and at completion of the program (be quantitative if
possible, e.g.: a 2 x improvement, or a specific achievement)? Explain what impact success of the
project would generate value for Singapore?
4
These refer to calls over the past 5 years.
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SECTION III: PROPOSED BUDGET (excluding Indirect Costs)
Content in this section should not exceed 1 page. The amount requested for each budget line item
must be documented and justified in the “Description” column.
Budget Category
Expenditure on
Manpower (EOM)
Description
Budget(S$)
What are the types, amounts, and costs of manpower required for this
program? Link the manpower allocations to the proposed technical
milestones.
A. Expenditure on
New Equipment
What equipment and supplies are required to succeed? Explain why
existing infrastructure is unsuitable or unavailable where new
purchases are proposed.
B. Other Operating
Expenses (OOE)
What is the expected unit cost per headcount per year?
C. Overseas Travel
(OT)
What is the overseas travel budget per headcount per year for
international conferences and meetings with collaborators and/or
industries? Explicitly link travel expenses to technical milestones.
Research
Scholarship (RS)
What are the types and budget (according to MOE’s prevailing rates)
of Postgraduate Students required? Link the manpower allocations to
the proposed technical milestones.
Total Direct Costs (S$): This figure must tally with the budget requested on the cover page.
Please indicate existing resources, equipment and post-graduates funded by other sources
that will be involved in this project (if any).
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SECTION IV: OTHER FUNDING SUPPORT
1. All grants currently held or being applied
Please provide the details (all fields are mandatory) for all currently held or applied grants by the PI
and all Team PIs listed on the cover page (not required for collaborators). These include those
supported by and/or applied to universities, other public funding agencies and foundations. Please
indicate “N.A.” for the particular PI or Team PI where this is not relevant.
S/N
Grant Call
ID/Project
Number
Grant Title and Title
of Supported Project
Funding
Agency
Status
Total Amount
Awarded/
Applied for (S$)
Funding
Awarded
to
Years of
Support
Grant End Date
(dd/mm/yyyy)
2. All other resources
Please provide details on the funding or other resources to be provided by any participating
industry/institute partner(s) for the applied grant.
Type of Resource
Funding Organisation
Duration of
Support(Years)
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Expiry Date
(dd/mm/yyyy)
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SECTION V: CURRICULUM VITAE
Please note the eligibility requirement:
PIs from publicly funded Institute of Higher Learning (IHLs) and Research Institutions in Singapore
are eligible to participate in the call. Private sector and other entities can participate as
collaborators. Lead and Team PIs must fulfil the following requirements:
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Hold a primary (Hold a minimum time commitment of 9 months per year) appointment in a
local publicly funded institution;
Have a laboratory or research program that carries out research in Singapore;
Be an independent PI with a track record of leadership ability in coordinating research
program(s) and providing mentorship to research team(s), as well as having productive
research outcomes; and
No outstanding reports from other national grants.
CV of all members (Lead PI, all Team PIs and Collaborators) listed on the cover page must be
provided according to the format below. Each CV should start on a fresh page and limited to 2
pages. Please indicate “N.A.” beside the label field if the required information is not applicable and
note that NRF will not be responsible for any missing information not provided in the CVs.
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Name
Title
Office mailing address
Email
Contact number
Current position (please provide full details, e.g. primary appointment, joint appointments;
other academic appointments including those outside of Singapore; percentage of time
spent in Singapore every year, if applicable)
Employment history
Academic qualifications (indicate institution’s name and year degree awarded)
Research interests
List of 5 most significant publications in the past 3 years relevant to the proposal
Patents held (related or unrelated to the study)
Scientific awards
Following Section V, please submit the letters of commitment from collaborators (if any) stating
their specific role and contribution to the project.
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SECTION VI: OUTCOMES FROM PREVIOUS GRANT(S)
The lead PI and all Team PIs identified for the project are required to provide information on the
outcomes of grant(s) received in the past 3 years, irrespective of whether the support was directly
related to the proposal or not. In cases where the PI has received more than one award, he/she is
required to only report on the one award most closely related to the proposal. The following
information must be provided (not exceeding half a page for each PI):
(a) Title of project
(b) Funding details, including funding source, amount and duration
(c) A summary of the results of the completed work supported by the grant, including
accomplishment and other scientific/technical impact.
(d) If the proposal is for renewed support, a description of the relation of the completed work
to the proposed work
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SECTION VII: DECLARATION BY GRANT APPLICANTS
In signing this grant application, the PI and Team PI(s) UNDERTAKE, on any grant award to:
 Not send similar versions or part(s) of this proposal to other agencies for funding
 Be actively engaged in the execution of the research
 Comply with the provisions of any relevant laws of the republic of Singapore, statutes,
regulations, by-laws, rules, guidelines and requirements applicable to it, as well as all
applicable policies and procedures adopted by NRF as the same may be amended or varied
from time to time; and
 Agree to hold primary responsibility for the responsible conduct of research, and shall abide
and comply with the ethical, legal and professional standards relevant to research, in
accordance to the research integrity policy of the Host Institution.
We declare that the facts stated in this application and the accompanying information are true. This
is an original and latest version of the proposal. We also declare that no other versions of this
proposal (or parts thereof) with similar objectives, scope, deliverables or outcomes have been or
will be submitted to any other funding bodies.
Name of Applicant
Lead Principal Investigator
<Name of Applicant>
Signature
Date Signed
Team Principal Investigator (1)
<Name of Applicant>
Team Principal Investigator (2)
<Name of Applicant>
Team Principal Investigator (3)
<Name of Applicant>
Team Principal Investigator (4)
<Name of Applicant>
Please add rows if necessary.
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