A new national programme that aims to position Singapore at the forefront of advancements in RNA science and applications was officially launched on the 24th March 2025. This new initiative – named National Initiative for RNA Biology and Its Applications (NIRBA) – is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) with total funding of S$130 million over seven years. NIRBA will engage scientists and clinicians from leading institutions like the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and Duke-NUS Medical School.
RNA biology and Its applications has been identified as a rapidly expanding field of critical importance to Singapore’s future health and economic needs. Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat, who is also Chairman of NRF, officiated at the inauguration of NIRBA at NUS.
NIRBA is led by Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, a Distinguished Professor of Medicine, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Director of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore at NUS, and Research Director at the Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology, A*STAR. He will work closely with a team of leading local experts in the field, to establish globally leading foundational research in RNA science, with strong translational potential for diverse applications. While the primary focus will be on human health, the research will also have relevance to areas such as agriculture, food safety, veterinary medicine, and synthetic biology.
To promote impactful and meaningful interactions, NIRBA will deploy a ‘hub and spoke’ model where new collaborative research programmes, international academic and industrial collaborations, as well as unique core research resources will be co-located in a central ‘hub’ based physically at NUS. This 2,000-sqm space will be equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and infrastructure to meet the biological, structural, chemical and computational needs of NIRBA. NIRBA will harness diverse research talents from different institutions across Singapore working at the central ‘hub’, enabling synergistic interdisciplinary collaborations with a broad range of partners. Other activities using existing research infrastructure will be performed in distributed ‘spokes’.
Over the next seven years with NRF funding support, NIRBA aims to add considerable value to the RNA research landscape across Singapore, through the training of researchers, recruitment of overseas talent, access to shared infrastructure and unique core resources, and exposure of local research staff to collaborative projects. The peaks of excellence in science, people and platforms established by NIRBA will help to future-proof Singapore’s investments in RNA research, advance precision health for Asian populations and diseases, and generate economic value through spinouts and industrial partnerships.
Read more about the launch on NUS News or visit us on our LinkedIn page.
