A*STAR Biomedical Engineering Programme (BEP) – Run 3

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Objective

The Biomedical Engineering Programme (BEP), administered by A*STAR's Health & Medical Technology Horizontal Technology Programme Office (HMT HTPO), is a competitive, multi-disciplinary Seed Fund aimed at supporting early clinically-driven MedTech innovations with promising commercialization potential. The BEP's objective is to seed early MedTech innovations, which can potentially contribute to a vibrant start-up ecosystem, and encourage value capture for the local innovation landscape.

Projects will have to be driven by a validated clinical need, matched to a potential technological solution against the current state-of-the-art / standard-of-care used. This user-centric approach to product development validates the end-users' desirability, the technological feasibility and ultimately the business viability, which is required for the technological solution to be clinically adopted. All funded projects must demonstrate high potential for commercial outcomes and show a high likelihood of rapid impact on patient care.　

The BEP is geared to support MedTech projects in achieving proof-of-concept (i.e. TRL 2-4; please refer to Annex for TRL description in the 'BEP Run 3 Call for Proposal Info Deck v1' PDF). Basic principles of the technology must have already been established and validated prior to the BEP. BEP-funded projects are not expected to complete clinical validation under the term of the BEP grant.

Some examples of expected project outcomes include technology deliverables like a lab prototype to illustrate the feasibility of the tech solution in addressing the clinical unmet need, as well as clinical deliverables such as a pilot trial, comparison against the gold standard, etc. These examples are meant to be illustrative only and are not meant to be exhaustive.

Applications for this grant call are not restricted to a particular clinical or technical area. Importantly, all proposals must show strong collaboration between clinical and technical partners to solve a specific clinical need.

For more details please refer to the 'BEP Run 3 Call for Proposal Info Deck v1' PDF.

  

Funding Details

Funding per project is capped at S$500,000.
Project duration can span from 12 months to 18 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Teams must comprise at least:

• 1 Clinical PI; with a primary appointment in a public healthcare institution or academic medical school in Singapore and be salaried by the institution, and

• 1 Technical PI; with >50% commitment in an A*STAR entity.

Submission

At Letter of Intent (LOI) Stage:

1. Applicants are to first send the LOI template to SingHealth Intellectual Property (SHIP - as the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) for SingHealth cluster institutions) SHIP@singhealth.com.sg through Host Institution research office by 16 June 2022 (Thursday), 12 PM for preliminary assessment. SHIP will then send the feedback to the applicants for revision (if any).

2. Applicants are to forward the finalised LOI template to SHIP prior to the softcopy submission online via A*STAR's Integrated Grant Management System (iGrants) system (internet accessible link) by 30 June 2022 (Thursday), 11:59PM.

3. There is no endorsement required at the LOI stage.

Note: SingHealth PIs are to please refer to your respective Institutional Research Administrators for guidance on internal deadlines and submission procedures set by your institutions.

Contact Person in SHIP

Email: SHIP@singhealth.com.sg

Contact Person in A*STAR

Email: HMT@hq.a-star.edu.sg

Additional Information

HMT HTPO BEP Run 3.zip