SGInnovate – a deep tech ecosystem builder and investor backed by the Singapore government – today announced two new efforts to plug the talent gap in the deep tech sector.
The first is the Deep Tech Talent Central (DTTC), which will serve as a one-stop talent gateway for the ecosystem.
To do so, the DTTC strategy will focus on:
- Building communities of practice through domain-specific, open access sharings with experts and industry leaders.
- Helping individuals deepen skillsets by curating training programmes with public and private sector partners to address specific areas of need.
- Responding to evolving talent gaps and providing platforms for practical learning and experience for talent with technical skillsets.
As such, SGInnovate can help plug rate-limiting gaps by working with partners to build on existing programmes and resources and map out opportunities across the four Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) domains.
SGInnovate expects to onboard over 500 emerging tech start-ups by 2025, an increase of more than 200% from 174 companies in 2022. SGInnovate's talent programmes, the Summation programme, the Infinity Series, PowerX and the Helix Immersion Programme, will also be scaled up to train over 900 apprentices and trainees during the same period.
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"Talent continues to be a global issue, and we are ready to apply our learnings at a national level,” says Juliana Lim, executive director for Talent at SGInnovate.
She adds: “With the launch of DTTC, we expect to catalyse more than 10,000 connections between talent and our partner companies each year, giving these companies unprecedented access to the critical talent they need at all levels."
Building a biotech talent pipeline
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The second effort is the Helix Immersion Programme (HIP), which aims to train and place more than 100 candidates with biotech start-ups and companies by 2025.
HIP is a one-year on-the-job-training programme that will enable biomedical research and academic professionals to gain industry experience across both lab and non-lab-based roles at fast-growing companies in this space.
Jointly-developed with biotech industry partners, HIP offers candidates exposure to commercial biomedical technology operations.
HIP’s inaugural run launches with five initial partner companies with operations in the biotech space who will offer training positions for candidates in the following focus areas:
- Chemistry and Manufacturing Controls (CMC)
- Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) or Absorption, Drug Metabolism, Excretion and Toxicology (ADMET)
- Regulatory Affairs
- Pharma-level Project Management
Among the initial partners is Hummingbird Bioscience, a data-driven precision biotherapeutics team.
Commenting on HIP, Piers Ingram, Hummingbird Bioscience’s CEO, says: "As an interdisciplinary team focused on discovering and developing important new therapies for hard-to-treat diseases, Hummingbird Bioscience is delighted to be a partner to SGInnovate's Helix Immersion Programme, which will accelerate the growth of Singapore's biotech sector.
“Through this collaboration with SGInnovate, we will strengthen bridges with biotech ecosystem partners in Singapore and contribute to building a future ready talent pipeline that will fuel the ecosystem.”
