Survey indicates participating companies enjoy increased sales revenue, employment growth
Singapore, 14 May 2013—A*STAR’s Growing Enterprises through Technology Upgrade (GET-Up) programme today marked its 10-year milestone of strategic partnership with local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to upgrade their technological capabilities. Since its launch in 2003, the initiative has benefited over 400 companies across the electronic, infocomm, chemical, and biomedical science clusters.
GET-Up’s flagship technical assistance initiative is its expert secondment scheme, called “T-Up”. To date, 413 researchers have been seconded to more than 240 companies under the T-Up scheme, providing a broad range of R&D and technology expertise to develop and innovate products and business processes.
In a recent GET-Up survey of T-Up companies, respondents that participated in the T-Up scheme reported that they experienced a 7 percent increase in sales revenue growth and a 15 percent increase in employment growth in the last three years.
The survey also revealed that 79 percent of T-Up respondents had launched new products in the last three years, with 52 percent launching two or more new products in this time.
Said Dr. Raj Thampuran, Managing Director of A*STAR, “GET-Up successfully bridges the gap from research to commercialisation. It is incredibly rewarding to see how our researchers have helped SMEs grow and profit. We are committed to offer a broad set of capabilities and provide platforms for our researchers to work with SMEs raise their competitiveness and productivity through technology.”
Researchers Awarded for Contributions to SMEs
Minister S. Iswaran, Minister In Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister For Home Affairs, Second Minister For Trade And Industry was the Guest of Honour at the event, which saw more than 700 representatives from Singapore’s SME community.
Three researchers were also honoured with the T-Up Excellence Award 2013, in recognition of their exceptional R&D contributions to local enterprises:
· Dr Eu Zhi Ang, Institute for Infocomms Research (I2R), A*STAR: seconded to Hoiio, which specialises in the R&D of IP network-based unified communication systems.
· Dr Li Hao, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), A*STAR: seconded to HistoIndex, which specialises in stain-free, three-dimensional, quantitative imaging solutions for visualizing and staging fibrosis.
· Dr Sandor Nemeth, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), A*STAR: seconded to PJI Contract, which specialises in industrial flooring, waterproofing and surface protection
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Contact
Lisa Chong
Corporate Communications, SERC Shared Services
Agency for Science, Technology and Research
Tel: +65 6419 6544 or +65 9797 5730
Email: lisa-chong@scei.a-star.edu.sg
Caroline Chia
Corporate Communications, SERC Shared Services
Agency for Science, Technology and Research
Tel: +65 6796 3884or +65 9170 3988
Email: lisa-chong@scei.a-star.edu.sg