IPI to give Sustainability a boost through new Innovation Challenge

IPI to facilitate open innovation for businesses in Singapore

Enterprises that partner with problem solvers with cross-industry expertise are fast-tracking innovation and creating new pathways to growth. Open innovation – a trend that has seen businesses adopting a more inclusive and collaborative approach - will undoubtedly help to ease the global economic dislocation experienced this year.  

A blind woman is walking along a street, slowly approaching an obstacle ahead. As she gets closer, the device hanging from her neck emit a high-pulse click, which reflects off the object.

Trained in human echolocation, the returning echo activates a visual processing area in her brain, providing her with information such as the shape, material and distance, which she then uses to build a 3D image of the object in her mind. A wooden bench, she concludes, before she continues on her stroll.

Every aspect of daily life inevitably leaves an impact on the environment: heating or cooling our indoor spaces, throwing out the trash or running the dishwasher all consume energy. But what if the built environment itself—with the help of smarter design—could help mitigate your negative impact on the planet? This is the dream of green buildings.

Thanks to COVID-19, most of our interactions now take place in an almost fully digital world. Employees attend meetings on Zoom and students take exams online; even film festivals and art exhibitions have found ways to take place virtually. While not the same as face-to-face meetings, digital events now have the potential to reach an even wider audience in new and engaging ways.

The key to securing long-term food security is investing in innovative technologies like alternative proteins, said experts at IPI’s AgriFood Innovation Webinar.

When countries around the world went into lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19, it revealed vulnerabilities in many of the processes we take for granted in everyday life. The food system—dependent on a complex web of supply chains spanning the globe—was particularly hard hit, as consumers flocked to supermarkets to stock up and unharvested food crops languished in abandoned fields.

GIIAVA’s partnership with NUS, sparked off by IPI, aims to repurpose low-grade vegetable oil for higher value-added uses, which increases revenue yet benefits the environment.

Dr Yashodhan Bhawe stood in front of several large tanks, looking puzzled. He was expecting a straightforward scale-up for a new vegetable oil upgrading process, but things turned awry when “big masses of blobs” were produced instead.

From the Lab to the FarmLearn about three innovations that are changing the way we produce and consume our food.The world’s skyrocketing population, coupled with climatic disasters such as heat waves and droughts, pose significant challenges to our ever-diminishing food supply. The United Nations has predicted a 40% global water deficit by 2030 if we continue our ‘business-as-usual’ way of life.

Global Trade Gets a Digital UpgradeDevelop innovative digital solutions through the Trade & Connectivity Challenge and take Singapore’s vibrant trade ecosystem to the next level.As the first Southeast Asian country with a container port, Singapore has cemented its place as a strategic trade hub over the decades.