NMRC CTG-Industry Collaborative Trials (CTG-ICT) - Letter of Intent (LOI)

Objective

The aim of the Clinical Trials Grant (CTG) is to enable the clinicians to carry out clinical trials for the development of novel therapies, interventions and diagnostics, focusing on healthcare needs. 

The CTG-Industry Collaborative Trials (CTG-ICT) supports ICTs that involve both clinician and company contributing intellectual inputs and funds to conduct the trial and developing novel or pre-existing therapies/drugs/medical device for new indications.

This scheme does not support trials that are fully funded/sponsored by companies. Such trials typically do not require the clinicians' intellectual inputs as the clinical trial protocol has already been designed by the company, and the clinicians' involvement is more for subject/patient recruitment.

This call will open throughout the year until 1 Aug 2025.

Areas of Research

The following seven disease areas have been identified as national priorities for research :

1. Cancers and neoplasms
2. Cardiovascular
3. Eye
4. Infection
5. Mental health
6. Metabolic and endocrine
7. Neurological

Additional identified priority areas for clinical trials are as follows:

1. Small regional network-based trials led by Singapore KOLs, particularly for rare diseases and Asian prevalent diseases of high priority
2. healthcare challenges to Singapore
3. Early phase clinical trials of high value to build on strong translational expertise (particularly in oncology and cardiology)
4. Clinical pharmacological clinical trials focusing on aging population
5. Precision medicine
6. Digital health technologies
7. Clinical trials using real-world data and evidence and well characterised and pre-consented patient cohorts

Funding Details

Funding quantum for each project is capped at $4.94M (inclusive of up to 30% indirect costs(IDC)) for up to 5 years.

Eligibility Criteria

Each grant application must be submitted by a Clinical Principal Investigator (PI) who has to fulfil the following eligibility criteria listed below.

• Must fulfil HSA's requirements for PIs who are conducting clinical trials. Pls refer to HSA website (internet accessible link) for guidelines on conducting clinical trials.

• Must be clinically qualified (i.e. with MD/MBBS/BDS) and preferably with post-graduate clinical training and experience.  

• Registered pharmacists who fulfil HSA's requirements may apply as PI.The pharmacist PI should involve physicians who are locally registered, as their co-investigators for all interventional clinical trials.

• Must hold a primary appointment in a local public hospitals/public health institutions/national specialty centres/public universities/Academic Medical Centres and salaried by the institution. 

• Must be an independent PI with a demonstrated track record of research as evidenced by the award of nationally competitive funding (international funding to be considered on a case by case basis) or substantial publication record. 

• Have a laboratory or clinical research program that carries out research in Singapore. 

• Hold a minimum of 9 months employment with a local Singapore institution, and fulfilling full time residency in Singapore over a period of the calendar year. 

• No outstanding reports from previous NRF, BMRC, NMRC grants and other national grants. 

Pre-requisites

The prerequisite for application is PI's ability to obtain industry contribution of at least 70% (cash or in-kind) of the Total Project Costs (TPC). The TPC and industry contribution will be based on the Research Collaborative Agreement (RCA) between the host institution (HI) and the industry partner.

For more details, please visit the website here (internet accessible link).

Submission

PI will submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) application. If the application is shortlisted, the PI will be invited to submit the full proposal.

For CTG-ICT, applications are to be submitted on IGMS before 1 July 2025. From 1 July 2025 and onwards, applications are to be submitted on the Research Grants Portal (RGP). Application period will be open until 1 August 2025, 5pm or until there is insufficient fund for award, whichever is earlier. Please check with NMRC Office for latest update.

Applications can be submitted at any time by 1 August 2025 and must be endorsed by the Host Institution's Director of Research (DOR).

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

Ms Tricia Teo

Email: tricia.teosk@mohh.com.sg

Additional Information

• Please download the 'Application Guide and Template' documents from NMRC's website here (internet accessible link).

• For more information on CTG-ICT, please visit NMRC's website here (internet accessible link).