STDP Thematic Grant Call

Key Details:
OSTIn’s Thematic Grant Call 2025 – Call for Letter of Intent (LOI)
Period of Application: 23 Apr to 7 May 2025
Link to form: Letter of Intent Template & Submission

Grant Call Details

Exploitation of Earth Observation Data
Earth observation data has become a crucial tool in addressing sustainability and humanitarian challenges, particularly in disaster response and maritime operations. By providing comprehensive and timely information about our planet, these technologies enable us to monitor, understand, and respond to changes more effectively. 

In disaster response, real-time satellite imagery allows for rapid assessment of affected areas, facilitating quicker and more targeted emergency interventions, whilst historical data helps in predicting and mitigating future risks.

For maritime operations, Earth observation data supports critical activities such as optimising ship routing, enhancing port security, and detecting illegal fishing or oil spill incidents. This wealth of information not only improves operational efficiency and safety at sea but also contributes significantly to maritime law enforcement and environmental protection efforts.

For this grant call brief, we have identified the following key research themes to brief participants on the specific problem statements and envisaged requirements of the proposed solutions:

1. All-Weather & Accurate Anomaly Detection for Maritime Needs
2. Disaster assessment and prediction for HADR needs

These themes aim to leverage Earth observation data for sustainability and humanitarian applications, with an emphasis on advanced data analysis techniques including artificial intelligence (AI). Key objectives include:

• Developing advanced AI and machine learning algorithms to automate the detection, analysis, and prediction of sustainability-related phenomena.

• Enhancing data fusion techniques to integrate Earth observation data with other relevant data sources (e.g., ground-based sensors, socio-economic data) for more detailed and timely insights for decision-making.

Project Duration
The project duration, including completion of the final report and all miscellaneous project activities, shall not exceed one (1) year. Proposals requesting support for longer than the stipulated number of years may be submitted. However, when compared with proposals of similar quality, these will be given lower priority. Strong justifications for the longer development period must be provided.

 Eligibility and Funding Support 

1.     This call is open to public research entities in Singapore, including Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), public sector agencies and Research Institutes (RIs). The main Researcher or Principle Investigator (PI) shall hold a full-time appointment in an eligible R&D organisation.

2.     Public research entities in Singapore can qualify for up to 100% funding support of approved qualifying direct costs of a project. Support for indirect costs is only allowed for Singapore-based IHLs^[1] and A*STAR RIs.

3.     Public research entities in Singapore may collaborate with researchers in private companies, overseas universities, or other local IHLs and public sector RIs companies and research partners not based in Singapore;

4.     All research work must be done in Singapore, unless approved by OSTIn.

Duration of Grant Call

• Submission of Letter of Intent between 23 Apr 2025 to 7 May 2025, 2359H.

• Only shortlisted Letters of Intent will be invited to submit a proposal for evaluation. (See assessment criteria and evaluation processes below)

Assessment Criteria

5.    Proposals will be evaluated on the following broad set of criteria:

Industry Relevance (Economic potential)

6.     Grant applicants proposing projects that are more downstream in nature (e.g. projects leading to the actual development of new products, software, and services) are required to have the support of an industry partner in project execution. Projects with a greater degree of industry support and collaboration (i.e. industry co-investment, industry partnerships, pathways to commercialisation) are preferred. Researchers are required to clearly state the nature and degree of their proposed collaboration with industry.

7.     Projects that are more upstream in nature and oriented around fundamental research should also clearly articulate the pathways to commercialisation and/or government use cases for the proposed research to be undertaken.

Application and Evaluation Process

8.      Upon receiving a request for proposal (RFP) from OSTIn, Lead PIs of proposed projects are invited to submit Full Proposals using the Proposal Template. CVs and references may be attached as annexes.

9.     All shortlisted Full Proposals will then be forward to the OSTIn Project Evaluation Panel (PEP) for evaluation. Shortlisted applicants may be invited to attend the PEP meeting to present their proposal to the PEP and to provide clarifications to the PEP’s queries.

Submission

10.     Proposals must be submitted to the RFP OIC using the Proposal Template via email with the Subject Title format: STDP-Title of Theme-Institution & Department of Applicant.

Result

11.     Shortlisted applicants with applications to be evaluated by the PEP will be notified no later than 3 months from the Closing Date for RFP. We regret that only shortlisted applicants will be notified. OSTIn’s decision on the outcome of the grant call will be considered as final.

 Clarifications

12.     For any enquiries, you may contact us at ostin@edb.gov.sg

^[1] National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Institute of Technical Education (ITE), and all Polytechnics in Singapore.