Nature 442, 493(3 August 2006) | doi:10.1038/442493a; Published online 2 August 2006
Singapore pulls plug on US collaboration
Ichiko Fuyuno
Abstract
Research ties with Johns Hopkins University cut.
The Singaporean government is known for its generosity in pumping money into international research projects. But it can apparently be ruthless if these projects do not please it. The city-state is shutting down a medical research arm of Johns Hopkins University in Singapore, claiming it has not delivered as planned.
The decision has sent shock waves through other universities and research institutes, some of which are in the initial stages of collaborating with Singapore.
On 20 June, the 60 faculty members and staff of the Division of Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Singapore, were given official notice that as of 1June 2006, the facility was being wound down. The process will take 12 months, with researchers and staff receiving salaries until the facility closes on 31 May 2007.
"We thought it unwise to continue putting money into something that is not working," says Andre Wan, director of the Biomedical Research Council at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). He claims that Johns Hopkins failed to meet key requirements in its contract.
The split is the first major failure of Singapore's recent push into biomedical research, which includes building the ambitious Biopolis research centre.
Singapore and Johns Hopkins Medicine first got together in 1998, to set up Johns Hopkins Singapore as the university's base for medical research, education and clinical studies in southeast Asia. In 2003, the two parties restructured the organization, making it the first full division of Johns Hopkins Medicine outside its US home in Baltimore, Maryland.
Under the five-year contract begun in February 2004, A*STAR agreed to provide S$75 million (US$47.5 million) to cover salaries, facilities and research equipment. For its part, according to A*STAR, Johns Hopkins aimed to build a centre of immunology, experimental therapeutics and cancer research, to establish a PhD programme and to bring senior researchers with international reputations to Singapore.
Wan alleges that Johns Hopkins has failed to meet 8 out of 13 key performance indicators in the past two years. For example, it agreed to hire at least 12 full-time senior researchers with residence in Singapore by the end of the second year. So far, Wan says it has hired seven, only one of whom fulfils all the requirements.
Gary Stephenson, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins Medicine, declined to comment, saying the university plans to issue a joint statement with A*STAR soon. But on 22 July, a Singaporean newspaper reported a Johns Hopkins official as alleging that Singapore failed to meet its financial and educational obligations under the agreement; A*STAR denies those claims.
The break-up has reminded other universities not to take their collaborative projects with Singapore for granted. For instance, in 2005 Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, established a graduate medical school with the National University of Singapore, as part of a seven-year contract. "The major lesson I'm taking from this is to seek great clarity of how performance in our exciting new venture will be defined," says Sanders Williams, founding dean of the new school.
