Debated in Parliament on 5 Aug 2026.
Mr Abdul Muhaimin Abdul Malik asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the total funding allocated to the Cities of Tomorrow R&D programme since 2017; (b) what key outcomes have resulted; and (c) how many funded projects have produced solutions that are deployed or commercialised.
The Cities of Tomorrow (CoT) research and development (R&D) programme is the Ministry of National Development's (MND's) flagship R&D programme under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise's (RIE's) Urban Solutions and Sustainability domain. It aims to develop innovative solutions that address Singapore's urban and infrastructural challenges and establish Singapore as a hub for urban solutions.
Since 2017, the Government has allocated about $258 million to the programme across two RIE tranches – RIE2020 and RIE2025. The programme has supported R&D across a broad range of areas, such as advanced construction, infrastructural resilience and urban planning, as well as projects at different levels of technology readiness, with some requiring longer gestation periods than others.
Of the 43 projects funded under CoT RIE2020, about 40%, or 16, projects have been successfully deployed or commercialised, with more projects on the way. An example is SoftGridInc, a Nanyang Technological University spin-off, which developed an innovative lift monitoring solution that improves fault detection and enables proactive maintenance, halving fault response times in field trials. The solution has been deployed in the Housing and Development Board lifts, as well as private residential and commercial lifts.
Most of the CoT RIE2025 projects are still in the early stages of R&D as they were only awarded early this year.
To further strengthen translation into deployment and commercialisation, we have set up a new translation fund in February 2026 to help local companies turn research prototypes into market-ready solutions and started a pilot Green Lane Procurement Programme to expedite the adoption of research and innovation products by government agencies.
MND will continue to work with our partners and agencies to build research and industry capabilities through the CoT R&D Programme and facilitate the translation of promising research into solutions that can be deployed or commercialised.
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