Objective
The National Cohorts Office (NCO) is a national initiative set up to advocate for and facilitate competency building among cohorts to enhance the long-term biomedical research ecosystem in Singapore. NCO is supported by funding from the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) through the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Office, MOH Holdings Pte Ltd (MOHH).
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 FAIR1 principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reuseable)1 and generate new insights through data linkage. In RIE2025, funding has been allocated under the Human Health and Potential (HHP) domain to support cohorts as critical infrastructural and foundational capabilities.
1 FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reuseable. Wilkinson, Mark D., et al. "The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship." Scientific data 3.1 (2016): 1-9.
2025 RFP Objectives
Maximize utility, value and impact of existing population cohorts by uplifting to FAIR principles;
Support existing population cohorts to prepare their data and processes to enable linkage and secondary use; and
Enrich and generate new insights from use cases through data linkage of existing population cohorts with other datasets on TRUST2.
2Trusted Research and Real world-data Utilisation and Sharing Tech (TRUST) is a national linkage platform for health-related research.
Funding Details
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.
Eligibility Criteria
Cohorts:
Population cohorts would minimally have an existing set of participants with full NRIC and consent for secondary use and data linkage.
Applicants:
Cohort lead must be the corresponding applicant. Only one corresponding applicant is allowed per application. Collaborative applications should appoint one cohort lead to be the corresponding applicant.
At point of application, cohort lead should:
Holds a primary appointment in a local publicly funded institution and salaried by the institution.
Has PhD or MD/MBBS/BDS qualifications (Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis).
Is an independent investigator (with PI status in institution) 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), and substantial publication record in the past 3 years.
Has a laboratory or clinical research programme that carries out research in Singapore.
Holds a minimum of 9-months employment (per calendar year) with local Singapore institution(s). Upon award, he/she must agree to fulfil at least 6 months of residency in Singapore for each calendar year over the duration of the grant award, and
Has no outstanding report from previous Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), NMRC grants, and other national grants.
Co-applicants and collaborator:
Co-applicants need to hold at least an adjunct position in a local publicly funded institution
Researchers from overseas institutions or private companies can only participate as Collaborators
Research Fellow/Associate/Assistant/Officer/Scientist
Salaried by institution can participate as Co-applicant or Collaborator
Salaried by project grants can only participate as Collaboratorsto be salaried under this current application cannot be Co-applicant or Collaborator
Note: If you have questions about grant eligibility, please contact cohorts@nus.edu.sg.
Submission
Interested applicants must complete the following documents which is required in the application package before consolidating them into one zipped file. The naming conventions in the source files should be followed.
[Word] Completed application form
[Excel] Completed Annex A, Tables 1 – 8
[Word] Annex B, CVs of all applicants to be submitted as a single document
[PDF] Annex C, Letter(s) of Support from the Cohort(s) Host Institution(s). There should be a letter of support from the host institution of each cohort listed in the application.
[Folder] For every cohort, the latest institutional review board approved participant information sheet, consent form, data collection form and data dictionary corresponding to the timepoints collected using the following naming convention [5.COHORT_T*] where * corresponds to timepoint e.g., T1 for baseline. If available, include the data request form.
Duly endorsed application form
Please email 1 zipped file of the completed and duly endorsed application package through your Host Institution's Research Office to the National Cohorts Office (NCO) at cohorts@nus.edu.sg by 25 June 2025 (Wednesday), 12 pm.
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
National Cohorts Office (NCO)
Email: cohorts@nus.edu.sg
Additional Information
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