National Research Fund Bill

Bill No. 10/2006

Read the first time on 27th February 2006.

An Act to establish a National Research Fund and to provide for its proper administration, and to make consequential amendments to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research Act (Chapter 5A of the 2002 Revised Edition) and the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board Act (Chapter 303A of the 2002 Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the National Research Fund Act 2006 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“Board” means the National Research Foundation Board established under section 9;

“Council” means the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council established under section 10;

“Fund” means the National Research Fund established under section 4;

“invest” includes entering into a transaction or an arrangement for the protection of investments;

“knowledge” means any knowledge or other information, whether or not the possessor of the knowledge or information has any legally enforceable rights in relation to it;

“property” means any legal or equitable estate or interest (whether present or future and whether vested or contingent) in real or personal property of any description;

“public authority” means any board or authority established by or under any written law to perform or discharge any public function;

“securities” includes shares, inscribed stock, debentures, bonds, debenture stock, notes or any other document creating evidencing or acknowledging indebtedness.

Meaning of “research and development activities”

3.—(1) In this Act, “research and development activities” means —

(a)

systematic, investigative or experimental activities that involve innovation and are carried on either wholly or partly within Singapore for the purpose of —

(i)	increasing or acquiring new knowledge (whether or not that knowledge will have specific practical application); or
(ii)	creating new or improved materials, products, devices, processes or services; or

(b)

other activities that are carried on either wholly or partly within Singapore for a purpose related to the carrying on of activities of the kind referred to in paragraph (a) or incidental or conducive to the attainment or furtherance of the purposes referred to in that paragraph, including —

(i)	scientific and technical information services (such as data collection) to support activities of the kind referred to in paragraph (a);
(ii)	building expenditure incurred in the acquisition or construction of a building, or of an extension, alteration or improvement to, or of maintenance of a building used or to be used for in activities of the kind referred to in paragraph (a);
(iii)	training and management of manpower for activities of the kind referred to in paragraph (a);
(iv)	feasibility studies with a view to establishing the strategic direction of any specific research and development activity; and
(v)	any other work or services (including patenting, licensing and other activities) necessary to support activities of the kind referred to in paragraph (a).

(2) For the purposes of this section, the following activities shall not be taken to be systematic, investigative and experimental activities:

(a)	market research, market testing or market development, and sale promotion (including consumer survey);
(b)	testing and standardisation;
(c)	prospecting, exploring or drilling for minerals, petroleum or natural gas for the purpose of discovering deposits, determining more precisely the location of deposits or determining the size or quality of deposits;
(d)	the making of cosmetic modifications or stylistic changes to products, processes or production methods;
(e)	pre-production activities such as demonstration of commercial viability, tooling-up and trial runs;
(f)	routine collection of information, except as part of the research and development process;
(g)	preparation for teaching;
(h)	routine software development;
(i)	legal and administrative aspects of patenting, licensing and other activities, unless referred to in subsection (1)(b)(v);
(j)	activities associated with complying with statutory requirements or standards;
(k)	any activity related to the reproduction of a commercial product or process by a physical examination of an existing system or plan, blueprints, detailed specifications or publicly available information.

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