Oxford University’s collaborations with Singapore occur both at the
level of broad and wide ranging partnership between institutions and in
the form of specific research collaborations between faculty members.
SPORE for Water Eco-Efficiency
Oxford has joined with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Peking to form the Singapore, Peking and Oxford Research Enterprise (SPORE) for Water Eco-Efficiency which aims to develop sustainable water technologies. Academics in Engineering and Chemistry at Oxford, NUS and Peking will engage in joint research projects and jointly supervise ten postgraduate research students studying for an Oxford doctorate. This collaboration will help to develop new ways to conserve and protect precious water resources, and offer exciting new opportunities for young scientists and engineers.
A*STAR-Oxford Partnership
In 2009 Oxford began a new collaboration with A*STAR, the Singaporean government Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, which is charged with fostering world-class scientific research for Singapore. The A*STAR-Oxford Partnership (AOP) includes a graduate scholarship programme for Singaporean students to study for an Oxford DPhil. Students on the programme experience two outstanding research cultures as they spend two years in doctoral studies at an A*STAR research institute and another two years at the University of Oxford. The programme builds on existing collaborations between Oxford and A*STAR academics and is also helping new collaborations to develop. In October 2009 the first three students began their studies under the programme.
Ageing
The Oxford Institute of Ageing has been working with Singapore’s Council for Third Age (C3A) since 2009 in an innovative three year collaboration to assist the Singapore government in its ongoing development of national policies on “active ageing”. The Programme comprises the Annual Oxford-Singapore Workshop on Ageing, held in Singapore to train future leaders from government, NGOs, civil society and health professions in the area of gerontology. There is then further Oxford-based training for researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field.
Collaborations into Genetic Susceptibility to Infection and Diseases
The Genetic Susceptibility to Infection programme in Oxford’s Jenner Institute leads studies aimed at identifying the genes that underlie individual differences in susceptibility to major infectious diseases of the developing world. There have been many links between this group and collaborators in Singapore:
• Chiea Khor, a former DPhil student in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, is currently Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS.) He is starting his own research laboratory supported by the A*STAR programme. Recent research published by Oxford and his team has identified key genetic variants that increase susceptibility to several infectious diseases – including tuberculosis and malaria. The variations in DNA sequence identified by the scientists occur within a single gene involved in the body’s immune response to infectious disease. This finding could lead the way to greater understanding of the role of this particular gene in disease susceptibility and even to the development of new vaccines.
• Professor Yik Ying Teo, recently of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford, is now an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Ongoing work with Professor Teo aims to develop better statistical methods to analyse infectious disease susceptibility.
Also working on genetic factors behind disease susceptibility, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Vietnam Research Programme and Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, together with researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore, have identified two gene variants associated with increased susceptibility to severe dengue. This finding opens up new avenues for understanding and developing a vaccine for the disease. This could go on to have a great impact because dengue is globally the most common mosquito-borne infection after malaria and kills an estimated 100 million people per year.
Material Sciences
Researchers from the Department of Materials have been working alongside colleagues in the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore (NUS) on a range of collaborations relating to quantum properties of materials.
• A team of researchers have been studying an unexpected subject matter - birds. The team have discovered the ways in which certain birds may actually be able to see the earth magnetic fields. It has long been known that birds can detect the earth’s magnetism in some form to help them navigate on long migratory flights, but this cutting edge research has shown that certain birds may have a form of compass view layered on top of their normal vision. This finding could go on to be a powerful model for engineered magnetometers; for instance a compass that is integrated into a contact lens.
• In another quantum science collaboration, a team of researchers from Oxford and NUS have found that by attaching an ‘amplifier’ molecule to the tip of a diamond, they are able to turn it into a tool for locating and identifying individual atoms.
IARU
Oxford and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are both members of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), an alliance of ten of the world’s leading research universities. One of the flagship initiatives of IARU is the Global Summer Programme (GSP) at Oxford which always includes members from NUS.
In 2009 Oxford began a new collaboration with A*STAR, the Singaporean government Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, which is charged with fostering world-class scientific research for Singapore. The A*STAR-Oxford Partnership (AOP) includes a graduate scholarship programme for Singaporean students to study for an Oxford DPhil. Students on the programme experience two outstanding research cultures as they spend two years in doctoral studies at an A*STAR research institute and another two years at the University of Oxford. The programme builds on existing collaborations between Oxford and A*STAR academics and is also helping new collaborations to develop. In October 2009 the first three students began their studies under the programme.
The Oxford Institute of Ageing has been working with Singapore’s Council for Third Age (C3A) since 2009 in an innovative three year collaboration to assist the Singapore government in its ongoing development of national policies on “active ageing”. The Programme comprises the Annual Oxford-Singapore Workshop on Ageing, held in Singapore to train future leaders from government, NGOs, civil society and health professions in the area of gerontology. There is then further Oxford-based training for researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the field. 
The Genetic Susceptibility to Infection programme in Oxford’s Jenner Institute leads studies aimed at identifying the genes that underlie individual differences in susceptibility to major infectious diseases of the developing world. There have been many links between this group and collaborators in Singapore:
A team of researchers have been studying an unexpected subject matter - birds. The team have discovered the ways in which certain birds may actually be able to see the earth magnetic fields. It has long been known that birds can detect the earth’s magnetism in some form to help them navigate on long migratory flights, but this cutting edge research has shown that certain birds may have a form of compass view layered on top of their normal vision. This finding could go on to be a powerful model for engineered magnetometers; for instance a compass that is integrated into a contact lens.