NUS Resilience and Growth Initiative
Empowering our graduates to have an impact on our people, our society and the world
Our world is facing many unprecedented challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges are likely to persist and continue to test us as a community beyond the present crisis. Now, more than ever, the world needs innovative ideas to help shape a better future for humankind.
To answer these challenges, we are excited to launch an innovation challenge to make our people, our society, and the world better.
We are especially looking for interdisciplinary approaches that embrace multiple perspectives, including those from arts and culture, health, social work, sports, and technology.
The keyword “better” runs across all three themes, signalling a common emphasis on human amelioration and betterment. We are looking for thoughtful and innovative projects that will have a clear impact for the social good, particularly in identifying and addressing issues, concerns and groups that have not received sufficient attention to date. Projects could address some of the new challenges and problems posed to society by Covid-19, but they could equally address other social concerns and issues. Given the common goal of social betterment, a certain degree of overlap between the three themes is only to be expected; it is entirely possible that a project which is deemed inappropriate for the theme to which it was submitted, be forwarded to another theme for consideration. The following focus points may be useful for applicants in deciding which theme to pursue.
The emphasis in this theme is on human capital and how to discover, strengthen and improve it. How do we improve the holistic quality of life in Singapore for all through activating both the will and skills of all people? Related to the Covid-19 situation, projects could address ways to activate purpose and motivation to reach our greatest potential, how we might work from home with greater personal and professional effectiveness, how might we be strengthened to be more adaptive and thrive through change and uncertainty for work and life beyond Covid-19
Here our focus is on improving the condition of disadvantaged groups. The Covid-19 situation has worsened the precarity of already-vulnerable groups, and has very likely also created new vulnerable groups. Are there ways of identifying and bringing relief to these groups, particularly by leveraging on technology? Can we bring sustainable improvements to their quality of life, and impart self-help skills and methods? Beyond Covid-19, we are interested in creative and practicable ways to build and enhance empathy, care and concern in society. Are there ways to bring together people and organisations (e.g. charities, corporates, philanthropists, service providers, etc) from various cross-sections of society and have them work together to reinforce social unity and resilience?
The focus is on both our human world and our natural world and the interactions between them. Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease. How can we prevent future zoonotic diseases? What is the connection between animal health and human health? Due to human activities, we have global warming, the decimation of our biodiversity and the degradation of our oceans. What can we do to reverse those trends? What can we do to promote sustainability? What can we do to move to a low-carbon economy? What can we do to achieve a zero-waste society?
NEW: Grant 2020 which was launched on 24 April by the Office of Student Affairs is now subsumed under the R&G Innovation Challenge. Check out the list of potential problem statements and community partners for Grant 2020.
The NUS R&G Innovation Challenge is open to all NUS graduates, in teams with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 people.
Join our online community to share your ideas, get feedback, and connect with potential team members at https://www.yammer.com/rg-innovchallenge#/home (log in using your NUSNET ID).
We welcome participations from our alumni as mentors for the projects. Interested NUS alumni should contact volunteer@nus.edu.sg to register their interest and be matched to a project.
In honour of the 115th anniversary of the university’s founding, NUS will fund 115 innovative projects. Each selected project will receive a grant for up to $50,000 for 6 months. For team members who are graduates from the classes of 2020, 2019, and 2018, the grant allows for a stipend of up to $1,200 per month per project eligible member for the duration of the project.
Interested teams should submit a completed registration form and a three-page proposal to InnovChallenge@nus.edu.sg. Teams who are interested to adopt any problem statements and potential partners listed under Grant 2020 can submit the same registration form and a three-page proposal to osaresponds@nus.edu.sg. The proposal should address the following questions:
The window for submissions to the Innovation Challenge is open from 1 June to 31 December 2020.
Every proposal will be evaluated by a panel of experts appointed for each category. The proposal will be judged based on its innovativeness and likely impact on the targeted community. The panels will convene regularly to select projects.
For more information, please contact InnovChallenge@nus.edu.sg.
View list of winning teams →
The innovation challenge is only open to all NUS graduates, however, only graduates from the classes of 2020, 2019 and 2018 graduates are eligible for the stipend.
We also welcome participation by our alumni as mentors for projects. Interested NUS alumni should contact volunteer@nus.edu.sg to register their interest and be matched to a project.
However, specific to Entrepreneurship trainees/teams, the project submitted to the Innovation Challenge cannot be the same project worked on under the traineeship programme. Pls declare in your proposal if any of your team members is an entrepreneurship trainee. Failure to declare will result in automatic disqualification from the challenge.