Speaking at the second-anniversary celebration of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Mr Heng Swee Keat highlighted that preparing for the next pandemic would be a key area of the national Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 plans.
“We will be developing a national R&D Programme for Epidemic Preparedness and Response, or PREPARE in short,” he said. “PREPARE will further strengthen our capabilities to prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics, by working with our local research partners, including NCID, and building a regional network to foster collaborations.”
In the months to come, Duke-NUS Professor Wang Linfa would be appointed to helm this new programme as its executive director.