Innovating today, leading tomorrow
Entrepreneurs are both born and bred. At NUS Enterprise, we stoke the fires of those born with the entrepreneurial spirit and spark the flames of entrepreneurial passion in others. We offer a complete range of avenues and support to turn entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
NUS Enterprise plays a pivotal role in advancing innovation and entrepreneurship at NUS and beyond. It actively promotes entrepreneurship and cultivates global mind-sets and talents through the synergies of experiential entrepreneurial education, active industry partnerships for technology and commercialisation, holistic entrepreneurship support and catalytic entrepreneurship outreach. Its initiatives and global connections support a range of entrepreneurial journeys and foster ecosystem building in new markets. As Asia’s Thought Leader for Innovation & Enterprise, it augments and complements the University’s academic programmes and acts as a unique bridge to industry well beyond Singapore’s shores.
Experiential Entrepreneurial Education
Aligning with the university’s vision of being a leading global university centred in Asia, NUS Enterprise organises a variety of entrepreneurial education opportunities.
For those studying in NUS, the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) Programme is a unique and immersive means to gain entrepreneurial and international exposure. Participating students undertake full-time internships within start-up companies located around the world while concurrently attending entrepreneurship-related courses at prestigious partner universities. The NOC Singapore Programme serves as a local counterpart to NOC by providing internship opportunities with innovative Singapore-based enterprises.
For students outside Singapore keen to learn more about the entrepreneur culture and activities here, we run a two-week residential NUS Enterprise Summer Programme for insights into local business practices and entrepreneurship development activities.
For researchers looking to commercialise their technology, we offer the Lean LaunchPad Singapore Programme, designed and conducted by NUS Enterprise specifically for researchers in universities and public research institutes who want to commercialise their technological inventions.
For social entrepreneurs forming the next wave in the tide of entrepreneurship, we offer the Business Model Design to help create, visualise and test business models. It is tailored to social enterprises, assessing the social impacts and financial sustainability of the purpose-driven venture.
Active Industry Partnership
NUS Enterprise supports the university’s drive for industry engagement and partnerships to transform university innovation into products and services through the NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO). With its deep industry knowledge, growing professional network and extensive legal expertise in intellectual property, ILO is widely regarded as a significant and critical part of Singapore’s technology transfer community.
ILO is responsible for managing NUS intellectual property, commercialising NUS intellectual assets and facilitating the translation of new discoveries and inventions to maximise commercial impact.
This commercial impact is achieved through the promotion of industry collaborations and engagement, close interaction with faculties and research centres and leading negotiations for external collaborations. NUS technologies and research also get help from ILO to spin off into new start-up companies. ILO does this by facilitating industry-sponsored research and joint R&D projects.
Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Support
NUS Enterprise provides a full spectrum of support to help individuals and organisations succeed in their entrepreneurial pursuits via the NUS Start-Up Runway.
The NUS Start-Up Runway is a complete suite of incubator cum accelerator programmes for start-ups to test, share and grow their ideas. It is a gateway into an extensive pool of experienced mentors and industry contacts. The NUS Start-up Runway caters to start-ups in a wide array of business areas, from Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) to biomedical to social enterprises. All of them enjoy the privilege of accessing the NUS Start-Up Runway at any point of their business development to benefit from support relevant to their particular stage of the entrepreneurial journey.
The end-to-end support that NUS Start-Up Runway provides is unique as start-ups do not just have access to the usual array of physical facilities and fund raising mechanisms, but to the university’s research capabilities and facilities, proprietary technology and test-bedding opportunities as well. NUS Enterprise-supported entrepreneurs also benefit from the team’s deep industry knowledge and government agency contacts, as well as the wide range of networks. These go beyond Singapore, to entrepreneurial hubs such as Beijing, Suzhou, Silicon Valley and more.
Catalytic Entrepreneurship Outreach
Together with the NUS Start-up Runway, NUS Enterprise supports and builds up the entrepreneur community with year-round Outreach and Education programmes and events. Such activities are triggered upon anticipation of industry trends and occur regularly. They act as catalysts, with the goal of encouraging more to hop on board to benefit and grow the community, thereby spurring them forward.
Our Social Venture Lab@NUS cultivates awareness and encourages participants to respond and react to the rapid developments within the social enterprise space. Programmes in this area include the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia, talks like the TEDxKent Ridge Park series and joint partnerships with impact partners.
We also run intiatives like InnovFest, Global Start-Up@Singapore, ASEAN+3 Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Network, as well as more casual events like Kopi Chat and Friday Feeds which aim to foster a stronger bond within the start-up community. Our many activities and events are often organised in collaboration with investors, industry contacts and Institutes of Higher Learning, reinforcing our belief in the importance of the community.
Being Asia's Thought Leader for Innovation & Enterprise
To stay ahead in entrepreneurial thought leadership, we constantly conduct research on pertinent issues of technology entrepreneurship. Our research covers in-depth analysis of innovation and intellectual property creation in Asia Pacific region. We also investigate trends, challenges and processes associated with start-ups.
To this end, NUS Enterprise participates in international collaborative research projects with leading foreign universities such as the Stanford Project on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Project. NUS Enterprise also produces high-impact applied research like the annual Asia-Pacific IP ScoreCard.
Our research findings are disseminated through scholarly journals like the Journal of Business Venturing, commissioned policy reports for government agencies, and public seminars and conferences. In addition, we work to tirelessly introduce new programmes and leading experts from around the world to benefit our enterprise community.
Campus Wide Collaborator
NUS Enterprise works closely with the faculties, research centres and other parts of the NUS community to co-ordinate a wide spectrum of entrepreneurship related initiatives and programmes. Our collaborators include different faculties and organisations within NUS, such as the Institute of Engineering Leadership at the Faculty of Engineering, School of Computing, School of Design & Engineering, NUS Business School, Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP), amongst others.
We also support the NUS Entrepreneurship Society (NES), a student-run society formed to equip, connect and empower student entrepreneurs from NUS and their counterparts from around the world. NUS Enterprise supports its many programmes and activities such as ASEANPreneurs and BizAsia in myriad ways, from helping secure sponsorship for events, to providing mentorship, advice and direction for the various initiatives.
At The Forefront
As we forge ahead, we are continuously innovating to ensure that our students and community retain their entrepreneurial edge in the global market. This means advancing new programmes, partnerships and initiatives in empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs – tomorrow’s business leaders who will take us forward today.