Agency for Science, Technology and Research

CEO Frederick Chew oversees the agency's full portfolio, but commercialization falls under A*STAR Enterprise, the technology transfer and venture creation arm. Investment decisions around spin-outs and corporate labs typically involve joint steering committees with partner entities — the Flagship Pioneering commitment, for example, deploys through a bilateral governance board. Day-to-day deal evaluation is handled by the Enterprise division, which manages the IP pipeline and incubates companies prior to external venture rounds.

A*STAR's deal flow originates inside its own 18 research institutes, where principal investigators develop intellectual property that feeds into the agency's pipeline. This internal sourcing model — the agency holds the patents, funds the labs, and co-founds the companies — gives A*STAR first look at Singapore's publicly funded deep-tech innovations. External partners like Flagship Pioneering gain access to vetted technology and local talent pools in exchange for company-creation expertise.

Neither — A*STAR is a statutory board under Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry, funded through the national budget. It functions as a research agency with a commercialization mandate, not a fiduciary managing a discrete asset pool. The agency does invest directly in spin-off companies and co-investment vehicles, but deployment is tied to R&D outcomes rather than portfolio return optimization.

A*STAR targets biomedical sciences, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced manufacturing, robotics, semiconductors, and sustainable energy technologies — all aligned with Singapore's national industrial strategy. It avoids consumer internet, financial services, and real estate development, preferring sectors where its lab-based R&D model can generate proprietary intellectual property before commercial transfer.

A*STAR typically uses co-investment agreements that combine its in-house technology pipeline with external venture capital and company-building expertise. The Flagship Pioneering deal is a benchmark: both parties committed up to SGD 100 million over five years, with A*STAR contributing access to its research ecosystem and talent pool alongside capital. Similar partnerships with corporate entities — GlobalFoundries, Rolls-Royce, ExxonMobil — use joint labs with defined intellectual property sharing agreements rather than equity-only structures.

Yes. The A*STAR Graduate Academy manages PhD and postdoctoral programs that are functionally separate from corporate collaborations, ensuring academic independence. Spin-off companies are formed through a technology transfer office that keeps licensing and equity terms distinct from joint-venture budgets. This separation prevents corporate partners from gaining preferential access to foundational research before it enters the public domain.

A*STAR is the primary vehicle for executing Singapore's national Research, Innovation and Enterprise plan, which committed approximately SGD 12 billion to public-sector research between 2021 and 2025. While the agency does not disclose its own balance sheet, its budget reflects allocations from that national plan, plus co-funding from partner corporations and licensing revenue from its intellectual property portfolio.