National University Of Singapore

National University of Singapore, an international not-for-profit research institution headquartered in Singapore, operates as a federal research prime contractor and grant recipient across biomedical, materials science, and defense research domains, competing under full-and-open procedures with no set-aside designations. NUS executes work primarily as a prime recipient of federal research grants (91% of recent awards) and holds a small subcontractor footprint on biomedical research initiatives led by U.S. universities. The institution serves as the parent entity for the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and maintains corporate relationships with the National Cancer Centre of Singapore.

NUS's federal work concentrates heavily in Department of Defense research and development. The Department of the Navy places the highest aggregate funding, with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery alone funding 15 awards carrying $7.7 million in combined potential value, anchored by a $2.98 million definitive contract awarded August 2024 for the NAMRU Duke/NUS Research Study (base period through July 2027, with option years and optional tasks). The Department of the Air Force leads by award count with 34 awards across the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory, and Air Force Research Laboratory. The Department of the Army Research Development and Engineering Command holds 7 awards worth $863 thousand combined, including a $399,828 definitive contract (May 2024) for development of multicomponent materials with dynamic properties capable of learning from and responding to external stimuli. Civilian health agencies place smaller volumes: the National Institute on Aging funded two contracts totaling $187 thousand, including a $149,450 purchase order (September 2023, extended through May 2025) for testing efficacy of candidate Alzheimer's disease treatments in hippocampal synaptic plasticity. Top five funding agencies by award count account for approximately 70% of recent awards; the top five by potential value account for approximately 99% of combined dollars.

NUS's grant footprint spans research funding, conference support, and capacity-building initiatives. The Office of Naval Research is the largest grantor by award count (21 awards), funding projects including antifouling in tropical Southeast Asian seas, the Singapore AUV Challenge and related maritime workshops, and mechanobiology research. The Air Force and Air Force Research Laboratory jointly fund basic research in AI-guided synthesis platforms for BODIPY chromophores ($100 thousand, September 2026 through August 2029 under CFDA 12.800), robust alignment of large language models, and light-controlled logic gates for living materials. The U.S. Agency for International Development funded a $1.5 million cooperative agreement (March 2024 through September 2025) under the Foreign Assistance for Programs Overseas program for capacity building and training in disaster risk reduction and technology preparedness in Southeast Asia. The Office of the Secretary of State and the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs fund cultural preservation and heritage knowledge exchange initiatives.

Activity volumes have tracked at 2–14 awards annually over the past five years, with an uptick to 14 awards in 2024, followed by 6 awards in 2025 and 2 awards recorded in 2026 to date. Four awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry $3 million in combined potential value and face recompete exposure. NUS places work on two Navy Blanket Purchase Agreements: N4034511A0017 (3 task orders, $210 thousand combined potential value) and N4034515A0014 (3 task orders, $298 thousand combined potential value).

In its subcontractor role, NUS operates as a sub-recipient on biomedical research grants led by premier U.S. institutions. Under a grant from Boston University (January 2026), NUS conducts medicinal chemistry optimization and antiviral screening for aglain derivatives as host-targeted agents against arboviruses. Duke University engages NUS for viral antibody detection via phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) to determine cumulative viral exposure history. Columbia University directs NUS to perform structure-guided mutagenesis, biochemical assays, and cell-based assays for Wnt transport and secretion research. Washington University has sub-awarded NUS analysis of Singapore Asian cohorts for multi-ancestry gene-lifestyle interaction studies across multiple grant cycles. The Child Mind Institute routes machine learning algorithm development and image processing support through NUS researchers. These sub-awards position NUS as a specialized research capability provider rather than an operational extension of prime grantees, leveraging Singapore-based expertise in epidemiology, computational biology, and materials science.

Federal research categories cluster in medical laboratories (8 awards), research and development in physical and engineering sciences (4 awards), and higher-education institutional research (4 awards), with PSC codes emphasizing basic research in medical and general science and technology domains.