After more than one cold winter at his last posting with Swiss-based agribusiness giant Syngenta, the warmth of the tropical sun in Singapore was definitely more inviting for Dr Stuart Harrison. He said, “Syngenta transferred me to Singapore in 2009 to set up the seeds research and development (R&D) organisation in Asia Pacific (APAC). This is the fourth country in the third continent I have worked for Syngenta and moving to Singapore is by far the easiest move for both me as well as my family.

Stuart oversees the seeds laboratory whose research helps breeders develop better varieties of rice, pepper and other crops in less time by identifying DNA markers associated with desirable traits. The lab, together with another one for formulation development, forms Syngenta’s Kendall R&D facility. The formulation development lab determines the best formulations for products like fungicides and herbicides, so that farmers can easily and safely apply them with common spray equipment.

Syngenta, like others in the global agribusiness sector, are racing against time to develop technology that will allow farmers to grow more from less. The task has never been more urgent. The world’s population is expected to grow by another billion to eight billion by 2030.

Selecting Singapore as its R&D base for this important mission was no accident. Stuart said, “We considered Singapore and other countries and finally decided on Singapore because from a logistics point of view, it’s easy for us to reach all the countries in the region from here.

“In addition, Singapore has a very strong environment for intellectual property rights and as Syngenta is an innovation based company, it really needs this to protect its intellectual assets. And finally, the government has created an ideal environment for Syngenta to operate its R&D business.”

The Singapore government has been investing to develop and grow the R&D sector to drive the Republic’s economic growth. The Republic aims to increase R&D expenditure to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2015, making it on par with the world’s leaders in R&D spending, including Japan, Israel, Finland, Switzerland and the United States.

“Singapore has a very strong base of academic research in both the biological as well as chemical disciplines, which are the areas we work in,” said Harrison. “And it is a great source of talent for us.”

Singapore is home to world-class universities which not only churn out top local talents but attract many capable foreign students who eventually stay on to make a career in the Republic. Stuart also added, “The people here are well-educated and you can additionally tap a global talent pool as there are many foreign talent willing to live and work in Singapore.

“We are spoilt for choice when it comes to employing both technicians as well as PhD-grade scientists for our research laboratories.”

Syngenta employs 22 scientists and technicians to man its two R&D laboratories in Singapore.

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Stuart added, “We’ve found that Singapore is an excellent location for us to find talent, we have found some incredibly innovative scientists who have made significant contributions – not only for our Asia Pacific region but a number of these innovations are actually being utilised globally by Syngenta.”

Another area that works well for Syngenta is the ease with which private companies can collaborate with local R&D institutions. Many of these have their roots sprouting from government support. Harrison added that his team works very closely with the likes of Temasek Life Sciences Institute as well as the Institute for Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES).

Another area where the Singapore government has played a critical role in developing the R&D hub concept is its creation of Biopolis. This is a dedicated R&D campus that has a large number of private and public research institutes housed in close proximity to one another, engendering an innovative and intellectual culture.

In recent years, the Biopolis has drawn world leading researchers to Singapore, forming the base for the next generation of talent. This next generation of talent is proving extremely beneficial from Syngenta’s point of view. Harrison explained: “These talents are not only a source for innovation with regard to new product development, but also a source for our own manpower needs.”

Syngenta, which also has its regional headquarters in Singapore, currently has 26,000 employees and operates in 90 countries worldwide.

It spends approximately S$1 billion on research and development across all of its activities globally.

The Asia Pacific region is its fastest growing region and it is receiving the largest increase in research and developments spend.

The seeds laboratory, whichStuart heads, also supports breeding programmes in South Asia, Southeast Asia as well as China whereas the formulation development lab supports 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Dr. Harrison and his team in Singapore are looking forward to the challenges ahead to bring plant potential to life.

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