SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 - Artificial Intelligence Research (AIR)

Objective
The SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2026 is to provide funding support to deserving translational and clinical research within the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Centre (AMC).

Special Category Grant:
Artificial Intelligence Research (AIR)

• This grant provides funding to SingHealth researchers to transform the future of health care using Artificial Intelligence ideas, technologies and methodologies. The potential benefits of AI include improved patients' care with improved efficiency of clinical workflow and decision-making process; while re-defining and focusing the manpower needs to the patients who require closer examination and surveillance.

• This grant call provides seed funding for deserving investigators to explore novel research ideas in (AI), support exploratory efforts for early-stage AI projects that involve an unmet clinical need and show potential for further development with the next stage of Proof of Concept (POC) funding.

• In addition, it also aims to position successful awardees to compete successfully for national funding and/or the development of their research to front-line clinical care and/or implementation.

  Projects in this category should aim for one of the following:

  • The end deliverable should be an AI solution, potentially applicable in SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Centre (AMC) and optimally, across other healthcare institutions; and/or show potential for patent, know how or copyright protection;
  • Projects should aim towards securing follow-on AI funding (such as NHIC, SMART, SPRINT, AI-SG, DXD and NMRC grants) or take other concrete steps to develop the technology towards commercialization, at the end of the project and/or;
  • Publications that advance scientific knowledge and understanding in the AI field

• The award value is capped at S$83,000 per successful application to be utilised over a period of 2 years. (*revised*)

Note:

• A certain amount of funding has been set-aside to allow grant applications under this category to be reviewed separately by the respective platform-specific panels.

• To apply for the Special Category Grants, please ensure that you meet the relevant guidelines listed under the specific category prior to the application (refer to attached "SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2026 - Guidelines").
  

The type of research supported under Special Category is:

• Artificial Intelligence Research (AIR) (≤ S$83,000)  

Funding Details
The grant award is up to S$83,000 over a period of 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Only investigators/researchers primarily employed in SingHealth and her member institutions are encouraged to apply provided the following criteria are fulfilled.

• Upon award of the grant applied for, applicants must not have received funding to conduct their own research project which cumulatively exceeds $300,000. This can be funding from any source e.g., internal, external, philanthropy or industry (i.e., If applicant has already been awarded $150,000 in research funding in the past, (s)he can only apply for less than $150,000 of subsequent internal funding as the ultimate intent is for SingHealth researchers to win national or external funding).  
• Residents in training programmes under SingHealth - who must obtain the appropriate endorsement from their Residency Programme Directors, HOD and ACP Vice Chairs, may also apply, subject to all other terms and conditions of the specific grant-type.
•  Applicants must not have held any national grants or international grants as a PI/Co-PI prior to the award. This excludes low quantum grants of $50,000 on a case-by-case basis (i.e. NCID Catalyst Grant and NMRC Clinician Scientist Seed Funding) (*revised*).

2. Association/Affiliation with an Academic Clinical Programme (ACP):
   

   a) The PI must be under an ACP or contributing to the growth and development of research in/under an ACP through active collaboration. Justifications must be given to support these research contributions and activities.

   Applicants will need to complete a self-declaration on the ACP to which their research has contributed and obtain acknowledgement from the respective ACP Vice Chair (Research)*.             

   b) If the applicant is unable to fulfil the above condition (i), the applicant should have his/her proposal signed-off by the relevant ACP Vice Chair (Research) and have it endorsed by the ACP’s Academic Chair while keeping the respective ACP Administrators informed. The signing-off in support and as endorsement of the proposal signifies that the applicant is associated to the ACP.       

3. The proposed research project must be conducted within the SingHealth Duke-NUS academic health system and the PI must have an official employment (permanent/contract) in a SingHealth institution throughout the effective grant period.

4. For proposals involving patients, the PI or Co-I should be Singapore Medical Council (SMC) or Singapore Dental Council (SDC) registered, as appropriate; or be able to demonstrate ability to access patients through SMC or SDC registered collaborators.
5. Under the Clinical Trial & Clinical Research categories, PI must be at least an SMC registered Associate Consultant or SDC registered (as appropriate; in compliance to HSA standard).
6. The project’s aims and objectives, and/or the same protocol have not been funded by other funding agencies.
7. No outstanding reports from previous SHF-Foundation/AM grants.
8. Applications that do not fulfil the eligibility criteria will be automatically disqualified from the SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Grant Research Committee (AGRC)’s or the respective platform-specific panels’ review.

Specific Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants must be able to show demonstrable interest, understanding of the AI space in their application, secured datasets, and initial pilot data, and seek to translate or implement AI technologies into health applications that benefit multiple health disciplines/areas.

• Collaborations across disciplines/ACPs/Departments/Institutions/AMC are essential/ encouraged with a long-term view to the integration of disciplines in a translational perspective.

• The project must not be or have been funded in its current form.

Submission

1. Each eligible applicant can only submit one application per SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant Call as the PI (i.e. a PI can only apply for either ‘SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2026’ or ‘SingHealth Duke-NUS AM & NHIC Joint MedTech Grant Call FY2026’).
   

2. Where an applicant has previously been awarded a SHF-Foundation/AM Research grants, subsequent grant applications from the same PI must differ substantially from previous awarded grants:

Within any single grant category or sub-category, project submissions from the same PI must be substantially and scientifically different (e.g. a PI may be awarded a Start-Up grant in 2014 and a second Start-Up grant in 2016 only if the research ideas of the two grants differ). Final arbitration will be made by the review committee.　

3. Association/Affiliation with an Academic Clinical Programme (ACP)      

1. 1. For PIs who are under an ACP or already contributing to the growth and development of research in/under an ACP through active collaboration, applications must be acknowledged by ACP Vice Chair (Research).
   2. If the applicant is unable to fulfil the above condition (a), the applicant should have his/her proposal signed-off by the relevant ACP Vice Chair (Research) and have it endorsed by the ACP's Academic Chair while keeping the respective ACP Administrators informed. The signing-off in support and as endorsement of the proposal signifies that the applicant is associated to the ACP.

4. Application must be endorsed by the applicant's Head of Department (HOD) and Residency Programme Director (if applicable) prior to the submission to SingHealth Office of Research (OoR) through the Research Office of the Principal Investigator (PI)'s Host Institution. Only applications with following submissions received will be accepted:

4. • 2 soft copies containing all information (e.g. proposal, CVs) in a single file

   • (1 in word format without signatures and 1 in PDF format with signatures). Electronic signatures are allowed.

5. Interested applicants, please refer to the application guidelines and respective application forms.

6. Please refer to the Annex 1– SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant Funding Guidelines in the application form when doing the budgeting.

7. Incomplete or late applications will automatically be disqualified from the review

Important Notes:

• SingHealth Office of Research will only process completed applications from eligible applicants.
• No change of PI once submitted.
• All applications must be made using the prescribed form. Failure to comply with all the requirements will result in the grant application being disqualified from review.
• Failure to comply will result in applications being disqualified from the review.
• 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
SingHealth Office of Research (OoR)

• Ms Tan Yi Mei: Email: tan.yi.mei@singhealth.com.sg

• Ms Ang Shu Wei; Email: ang.shu.wei@singhealth.com.sg

• Dr See Jie Yang: Email: see.jie.yang@singhealth.com.sg 
  

Additional Information

SingHealth Duke-NUS AM Research Grant 2.0 FY2026 - AIR