Wednesday, June 16, 2010

News update New R&D institute opens


Mr S. Iswaran (above) said the research and development (R&D) work done by ERI@N will yield insights and ideas which would affect energy policy in Singapore for the next two to three decades. --PHOTO: TEMASEK HOLDINGS

SINGAPORE has a new institute that will focus on research into fast-growing and increasingly important areas such as solar power, electric vehicles and smart power grids.

Dubbed ERI@N, short for the Energy Research Institute @ Nanyang Technological University (NTU), it will be powered by $200 million in funds from several agencies, including the Economic Development Board (EDB), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).
Other areas it will conduct research into include energy materials, wind energy and sustainable buildings.
ERI@N will not go it alone. It will partner six renowned universities - the Austrian Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, Imperial College London, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, and the Technical University of Munich.
It will also have a seven-member international advisory board comprising top academics in various fields. The board will be headed by a Swiss scientist, Professor Michael Gratzel, who won this year's Millennium Technology Prize in Finland for his invention and development of dye-sensitised solar cells, a cheap and good alternative to silicon solar cells.

At the launch of the institute yesterday, Mr S. Iswaran, the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, said the research and development (R&D) work done by ERI@N will yield insights and ideas which would affect energy policy in Singapore for the next two to three decades.