The Office of Research & Tech Transfer (ORTT) is the institutional office overseeing and supporting a variety of research-related matters at the University level. ORTT works with the various SMU Schools, Institutes, Centres and Labs (ICLs), and other University administration offices such as the Office of Finance (OFN), and the Office of Legal and General Affairs (OLGA) to provide support to researchers across the research project life cycle in the following areas:
ORTT works with faculty, Schools, ICLs and senior management to shape, articulate and implement university-wide research strategies to create research impact. ORTT is also responsible for research grants related performance analysis and the reporting to both internal and external stakeholders. ORTT thus plays a key role to facilitate and support the delivery of SMU’s research objectives.
ORTT disseminates information on available funding opportunities to the SMU research community, facilitates grant application submissions, and provides advice at each stage of the grant life cycle.
During the pre-award stage, ORTT provides details of major funding opportunities, and offers advice and support to faculty members and researchers who are interested to apply for research grants. Grant applications should be submitted to ORTT for verification and endorsement prior to submission to funding agencies. ORTT assists the Schools, ICLs and faculty members to review research proposals so as to ensure the grant applications meet the funding agencies’ requirements.
During the post-award stage, ORTT assists the Schools, ICLs and faculty members in the submission of grant variations, progress reports or project closure, where required. This includes advice on justifications for grant variations, and checks for consistency for the reports that need to be submitted to the funding agencies through ORTT.
ORTT acts as a liaison for research funding agencies and research partners in the government, private and non-profit sectors, and serves as the point of contact with key funding agencies in Singapore such as Ministry of Education (MOE), National Research Foundation (NRF), and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
ORTT also administers the SMU Internal Research Grant Call every year. These grant calls tap on the MOE Tier 1 Academic Research Funding (AcRF) to fund projects awarded. ORTT provides MOE with an update of the projects awarded through the grants calls, as well as the achievements of these projects annually.
For more details, please see the ORTT Grants intranet site (SMU users only).
ORTT is the liaison between SMU, and research funding agencies and research partners on research funding schemes and other research agreements. Together with OLGA, OFN, Schools, ICLs and faculty, ORTT reviews and negotiates the terms and conditions of these agreements for alignment with SMU’s interests.
ORTT provides support for Intellectual Property (IP) management and technology transfer arising from SMU’s research, education and administrative work.
We work with SMU OLGA to formulate university-wide policies related to IP management and technology transfer. We also work closely with Schools, ICLs, and the broader SMU community to help identify and manage various forms of IP that are created across the university, file patents for IP that warrants such protection, and motivate and facilitate technology transfer when appropriate.
Faculty or staff should contact ORTT for the following:
- To file an Innovation Disclosure to determine the need to protect the IP; or
- To discuss potential licensing for past or on-going research work
For more details, please see the ORTT Intellectual Property Management & Technology Transfer intranet site (SMU users only).
ORTT aims to raise awareness of research conducted by SMU which could lead to research collaborations both within SMU and with external partners. One key approach is through the Research@SMU e-newsletter published by ORTT, which highlights research by Schools and ICLs.
Last updated on 05 Sep 2018 .
