Year in Review 2025

This year, CRIS celebrates 5 years of creating synergies, nurturing collaborations and enhancing Singapore’s clinical research and innovation capabilities. Through the collective commitment and hard work of the teams at ACTRIS, CADENCE, NHIC, PRECISE, SCRI, STCC and SIMFONI, we have achieved significant milestones and delivered health and economic impact, with much more to come!

Join us as we reflect on the key moments this year as we pave the way with our partners to build a future-ready healthcare system together.

This year-in-review showcases our commitment to support and enable our national-level clinical research and translation programmes to advance Singapore’s healthcare research and innovation capabilities. By fostering collaboration across public and private sectors, CRIS will continue to enable cutting-edge research, accelerate translational efforts, and drive impactful economic value capture and healthcare outcomes.

Celebrating #5yearsofCRIS

CRIS 5th year anniversary and appreciation dinner

At the CRIS 5th year anniversary and appreciation dinner held on 29 April 2025, we recognised the dedication and achievements of the collective effort over the past five years in strengthening synergies and developing strategies to enhance the clinical research and innovation landscape for Singapore.

Along with ecosystem partners and friends, we reflected on the milestones achieved and renewed our commitment to building capabilities to support our programmes. Our goal remains clear: to advance Singapore’s clinical trials ecosystem, healthcare innovation, precision medicine, cancer and cardiovascular research, and cell therapy manufacturing.

We also took the opportunity to express our heartfelt appreciation to Professor John Lim for his contributions in establishing CRIS as a consortium to advance national-level clinical research and translation programmes.

Check out highlights here. 

CRIS 5th year anniversary fringe activities

As part of CRIS 5th year anniversary celebrations, CRIS rolled out a series of fringe activities for staff to celebrate and strengthen our identity as #OneCRIS.

On 16 April 2025, staff were invited to pen down words of encouragement to colleagues on special edition CRIS 5th anniversary postcards. Beyond a simple postcard, their messages to one another were a recognition of the dedication poured into our programmes, and shared commitment to shaping clinical research and translation collectively to advance healthcare. 

Wrapping up the exchange with a fun twist, staff were also given a pouch of five stones which represent the building blocks and milestones that have enabled CRIS and our programmes to thrive. Each trinket contains a collectible fun fact about CRIS and serves as a reminder that everyone has played a part to enable the collective success at CRIS.

On 13 June 2025, over 100 staff members and their families gathered for CRIS family day at Rainforest Wild Asia , organised by CRIS HR. It was truly a fun-filled day spent creating unforgettable memories. 

On 15 October 2025, employees enjoyed a mid-day perk-me-up with "Conversations Over Coffee". With a cup of coffee in hand, staff across our programmes learnt fun facts about one another and CRIS.

STCC and National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) signed MoU to strengthen cross-border partnerships in biobanking and translational cancer research

On 27 March 2025, STCC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) in Taiwan, to strengthen cross-border partnerships in biobanking and translational cancer research.

This partnership will enrich STCC’s cancer tissue specimen repository as a resource that will empower researchers from Singapore and Taiwan to co-access anonymised biospecimens and foster translational research collaborations with a key focus on Asian-prevalent cancers.

Through this collaboration to share resources and expertise, we aim to uncover novel cancer mechanisms and targets and accelerate the development of new cancer therapies to improve patient outcomes. This MoU is a significant milestone in our mission to advance cancer research and translation. 

Read about the MoU here. 

PRECISE announced landmark partnership with Alnylam, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novo Nordisk to advance Asian precision medicine research

On 1 December 2025, PRECISE announced a landmark partnership with Alnylam, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novo Nordisk to advance Asian precision medicine research. The joint research will benefit Singapore by driving advancements and healthcare solutions in precision medicine tailored to Asian populations.

The collaboration aims to enhance existing PRECISE-SG100K anonymised datasets from Singapore’s National Precision Medicine (NPM) programme by generating new, high-quality research with the potential to benefit Asia and Asians worldwide, addressing gaps in global genomic studies and translating precision medicine research into impactful solutions.

The collaboration is expected to create significant economic benefits for Singapore, such as job opportunities, knowledge and expertise transfer, and collaborative research to strengthen our biomedical ecosystem, while ensuring data privacy and security.

Read the full press release here and view key highlights here. 

Singapore launched Phase III of the National Precision Medicine (NPM) programme

On 14 November 2025, PRECISE launched Phase III of the National Precision Medicine (NPM) programme, with the goal of scaling research insights into tangible outcomes that will translate into real-world healthcare outcomes.

This development comes at the back of the completion of Phase I and Phase II of the NPM programme. Phase I sought to study the genomes of 10,000 Singaporeans, which progressed to Phase II, a comprehensive population health study to map the DNA of 100,000 people in Singapore.

The next phase of the NPM programme will gather robust genomic research insights from patient cohorts, which would support doctors and patients in making informed decisions for preventive care, in the future.

The event, graced by Guest-of-Honour, Minister Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Health and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies, was marked with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with public healthcare clusters, NHG Health, National University Health System (NUHS) and SingHealth.

Check out highlights of the Phase III launch event here and read the full press release here.

Launch of the ASPIRE Network at the Asia Pacific Scientific Congress (APSC) 

On 18 April 2025, SCRI and CADENCE have partnered to establish the Asia Pacific Cardiovascular Research (ASPIRE) Network. 

Clinical research networks have become a critical platform to gather clinical evidence that has not been possible in the past with single sites. The ASPIRE Network joins SCRI’s strength of eleven other networks in advancing critically important and relevant research for diseases of Asian significance.

Bringing together a collective of leading researchers, healthcare providers and experts from health systems in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, the network aims to drive cardiovascular research excellence across the APAC region through:

• Fostering regional collaboration to increase APAC representation in cardiovascular clinical trials

• Attracting industry-sponsored trials by leveraging vast patient populations, large pool of research sites and robust clinical infrastructure of network partners

• Building capacity among key opinion leaders and expanding trial leadership opportunities in multi-centre studies

For more information on the ASPIRE Network, please visit ASPIRE's website and read the LinkedIn post.

CADENCE and Novo Nordisk signed MoU to strengthen collaboration in clinical research for cardiometabolic diseases

On 9 May 2025, CADENCE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Novo Nordisk to strengthen collaboration in clinical research for cardiometabolic diseases.

This partnership aims to bring more trials into Singapore, broaden patient access to innovative therapies, and strengthen trial site capabilities. Both parties will work closely to identify strategic sites, support training for investigators and study teams, and drive quality in clinical operations.

Through this collaboration, CADENCE and Novo Nordisk will explore measures to streamline feasibility assessments, expedite study start-up processes, and facilitate transparent communication on site performance and budgeting.

View highlights here. 

RIE2030 Planning - NHIC held strategic engagement sessions with NHG Health, National University Health System (NUHS) and SingHealth

In preparation for Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2030, which will focus on achieving transformative outcomes for the economy and national strategic priorities, NHIC organised strategic consultation sessions with the public healthcare clusters in 2025. Building on its decade-long partnership and past successes that delivered over 85 licenses and 28 spin-offs across three RIE cycles, these engagements aimed at aligning strategies, capabilities, and opportunities to drive development, scaling, implementation, and commercialisation of impactful health tech solutions. As part of these efforts, NHIC commissioned a comprehensive benchmarking analysis report examining global healthcare innovation practices and ecosystem challenges to inform strategic planning.

The strategic consultation process reinforces NHIC's role in bridging clinical research, clinical practice, commercialisation and adoption to maximise the impact of Singapore's healthcare innovation investments under the RIE2030 framework.

NHIC and SCRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MedTech Catapult

On 25 August 2025, NHIC and SCRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MedTech Catapult, that will catalyse synergy across the MedTech ecosystem to strengthen clinical development and market adoption for innovators and academic spinoffs.

This partnership aims to increase the success of promising MedTech innovations by additionally enabling unmet need validation, productisation support, clinical study planning and evidence generation.

NHIC will play a key role in guiding, co-funding and supporting MedTech projects with MedTech Catapult on clinical validation together with partners from the public healthcare institutions (PHIs), providing strategic guidance on project readiness, alignment with clinical needs, and facilitating networking opportunities with suitable clinical sites and clinical investigators within the healthcare ecosystem.

SCRI, with its vast network of industry partners, will connect MedTech Catapult to its clinical trial network and provide clinical operation services to support their trials and studies.

View highlights of MoU here. 

ACTRIS secured GMP status and Manufacturer’s License (ML), ready to provide home grown novel treatments to patients

As a national facility, ACTRIS will boost Singapore’s cell therapy capabilities to improve patient access to potentially life-saving therapies. ACTRIS will support end-to-end cell therapy development and manufacturing, enabling these innovations to be translated into research and clinical care that advance cancer treatment and regenerative medicine.

In September 2024, ACTRIS underwent inspection for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification and Manufacturer’s License (ML) and was granted the ML along with the GMP certificate in February 2025.

Read the editorial here, as we spotlight the meticulous effort by the team behind this milestone feat.

CRIS announced appointment of Executive Director for the SIngapore Medical FOundation AI model (SIMFONI) Programme

On 15 September 2025, the SIngapore Medical FOundation AI model (SIMFONI) was established as a programme under CRIS, to advance effective, safe and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Singapore’s healthcare systems to support healthcare professionals and patients.

Professor Robert Morris has been appointed as the Executive Director of this new programme, which is focused on translating AI innovation into real-world clinical impact. 

SIMFONI is supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health through the National Medical Research Council Office, MOH Holdings Pte Ltd under the NMRC RIE2025 SIMFONI Funding Initiative.

Learn more here.

SCRI lauded as an esteemed member in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Clinical Trials Forum

On 7 October 2025, SCRI is proud to be a member of the Global Clinical Trials Forum (GCTF) and is committed to strengthening clinical trial capacities and supporting evidence-based health interventions, in Singapore and beyond.

The GCTF network supports the implementation of WHO’s Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials, which sets out principles and actions to improve the design, conduct, oversight and use of trials. It is further guided by the Global Action Plan for Clinical Trial Ecosystem Strengthening (GAP-CTS), which translates the guidance into nine priority action areas addressing barriers across current clinical trial ecosystems. The formation of the GCTF represents a significant step towards ensuring that all countries have the capacity to generate reliable evidence to guide health policy and practice.

Read here for LinkedIn post and here for more information on GAP-CTS.