NUS (National Cohorts Office)

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Funding Opportunities

The National Cohorts Office maintains administrative oversight of the Strategic Cohorts Funding. Periodic requests for proposals will be made.

Open Calls

Virtual Roadshow for the NCO 2025 Request for Proposals (RFP)

NCO would like to invite eligible institutions and teams to apply for its 2025 Request for Proposals (RFP), which will be launched on 22 Apr 2025. NCO will be conducting a roadshow on 7 Apr 2025 ahead of the launch and would like to invite interested teams to join the roadshow for more details on the RFP. Please find details of the roadshow below.

Background

It is well recognised that population cohort studies are powerful infrastructure for biomedical research and translation. At the same time, population cohorts require substantial time, effort and resources to build and maintain. To maximise utility, value and impact of these assets, we need to uplift to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) [1] and generate new insights through data linkage. In RIE2025, funding has been alllocated under the Human Health and Potential (HHP) domain to support cohorts as critical infrastructural and foundational capabilities.

2025 RFP objectives

  1. Maximise utility, value and impact of existing population cohorts by uplifting to FAIR principles;
  2. Support existing population cohorts to prepare their data and processes to enable linkage and secondary use; and
  3. Enrich and generate new insights from use cases through data linkage of existing population cohorts with other datasets on TRUST (Trusted Research and Real World Utilisation and Sharing Tech).

This 2025 RFP funding is not for cohort maintenance, participant recruitment or new data generation but for cohorts to uplift their data collection and visibility, and generate new insights through data linkage via TRUST. Eligible population cohorts would minimally have an existing set of participants with full NRIC and consent for secondary use and data linkage.

Funding details

  • Funding quantum: Max S$750,000 for single cohort; S$1.5M for 2 or more cohorts
  • Indirect Research Cost (IRC): Not applicable
  • Eligibility criteria: Existing population cohorts with full NRIC
  • Funding duration: 18 months
  • Application format: 5-page write-up and annex tables
  • Funding mode: Reimbursement

Roadshow details

NCO will be conducting a virtual roadshow for the 2025 RFP:

  • Date: Mon 7 Apr
  • Time: 1-2pm
  • Venue: Zoom

Registration for Roadshow

Please register for the event via this link. After successful registration, you will receive a confirmation email with a unique link for joining the meeting. Roadshow slides will be available for download here after 7 April.

Please download the RFP application package here.

Contact details

Please email cohorts@nus.edu.sg with your queries.

Reference

    1. Wilkinson, Mark D et al. “The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship.” Scientific Data vol. 3 160018. 15 Mar. 2016, doi:10.1038/sdata.2016.18

    • Closed Calls

    2022 Strategic Cohorts Request for Proposals (RFP) (21 September 2022 – 2 November 2022)

    The objectives of the 2022 RFP were to:

    • Provide funding to selected existing cohorts deemed strategic to Singapore.
    • Maintain strategic cohorts as research infrastructure to drive innovation and capacity building.
    • Contribute towards a collaborative research ecosystem guided by international best practices.
    • Generate new data and new services through collaborations to maximise value, data utility and demonstrate health impact.

    The 2022 RFP took a multi-phase approach divided into competitive and collaborative phases:

    • The first phase was competitive and open to local publicly-funded institutions. Teams submitted a 5-page Letter of Intent (LOI) showcasing the significance, utility, collaboration, and data-sharing potential of the cohorts. They were shortlisted based on their synergy with the other shortlisted applicants and their potential contribution to the data ecosystem.
    • The second phase was collaborative and for shortlisted Strategic Cohorts only. They were invited to a collaborative workshop to identify areas of synergy to develop common infrastructure for research, which they translated into a collaborative full proposal to establish a national platform and joint governance for data sharing and research that would be made available to the wider research community.
    • The Selection Panel comprised international experts and local representatives.

    The shortlisted Strategic Cohorts are Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS), Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases (SEED), SG100K, and Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies-Yishun Study (SLAS-YS). Read about the Singapore Strategic Cohort Consortium (SSCC) here.