Job Description

What the role is:The National Research Foundation (NRF) is a department within the Prime Minister\'s Office, and we set the national direction for research, innovation and enterprise (RIE) by developing policies, plans and strategies; funding strategic initiatives that strengthen our scientific and technological capabilities, grow our RIE talent base, and achieve economic and national impact; and fostering RIE collaboration in Singapore and internationally.What you will be working on:Responsibilities \xe2\x80\xa2 Shape the overall talent strategy for building a vibrant RIE ecosystem to enhance Singapore\'s economic competitiveness and capacity for addressing national imperatives. \xe2\x80\xa2 Formulate, implement, evaluate, and review policies and programmes for RIE talent development. \xe2\x80\xa2 Bring on board RIE ecosystem stakeholders, taking into consideration their needs and perspectives, including public research institutions, private sector organisations and partner agencies. \xe2\x80\xa2 Develop qualitative and quantitative assessments of progress in attracting, developing and retaining talent, including global competitive benchmarking. \xe2\x80\xa2 Plan and manage research grants administered by NRF Manpower. This includes secretariat duties to support the Fellowship Evaluation Panel (comprising eminent scientists from around the world) in awarding research grants. o Administer grant calls and awards; o Process claims; and o Prepare periodic reports and updates to senior management \xe2\x80\xa2 Key workstreams that the candidate may lead include: i. Developing a talent monitoring framework for the RIE ecosystem, including developing benchmarks for quality of talent and implementing/refining the data collection approach for monitoring the stock, flow and mix of these talent. ii. Formulating strategies to encourage greater academic entrepreneurship across PhD Students, Postdocs and Faculty/Senior Researchers. iii. Assessing the need for enhancing postdoc quality in public research institutions, and developing effective interventions. iv. Reviewing the talent strategies of key research programmes.What we are looking for:Requirements \xe2\x80\xa2 Minimum of 5 years experience in a Singapore Government agency in a policy, strategic planning or sector development role. \xe2\x80\xa2 The candidate should be inspired by the opportunity to take on challenging issues and break new ground. This requires strong analytical abilities, being comfortable with complexity and ambiguity, and ability to sensemake the way forward. \xe2\x80\xa2 Creativity, thought leadership, and ability to drive progress while working collaboratively in a team is a critical requirement.About National Research Foundation:The National Research Foundation (NRF) was set up on 1 January 2006 as a department under the Prime Minister\'s Office. It was set up to perform the following: a) To provide secretariat support to the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by the Prime Minister; b) To coordinate the research of different agencies within the larger national framework in order to provide a coherent strategic overview and direction; c) To develop policies and plans to implement the five strategic thrusts for the national R&D agenda; and d) To implement national research, innovation and enterprise strategies approved by the RIEC, and to allocate funding to programmes that meet NRF\'s strategic objectives.

National Research Foundation