The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Google are embarking on a new strategic collaboration to accelerate applied AI research and nurture skilled AI practitioners. This collaboration reinforces Singapore's ambition to be a global hub for AI innovation and talent, advances the national digital transformation agenda, and deepens industry-academia partnerships to strengthen the country's research ecosystem.
NUS and Google exchanged strategic collaboration agreements to establish a joint research and innovation centre during the NUS School of Computing's (NUS Computing) 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner, where the School commemorated five decades of sterling contributions to computing education and research.
The exchange of signed agreements between Professor Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS Computing, and Ms Serene Sia, Country Director, Singapore and Malaysia, Google Cloud, was witnessed by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, together with Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS President, and Ms Yolyn Ang, Vice President, Knowledge and Information Partnerships, Asia Pacific, Google.
Professor Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology), said, "Google has been a valued long-term partner of NUS, and we are excited to deepen this strategic relationship. The joint centre brings together NUS' leadership in AI and multidisciplinary research and Google's deep research expertise, advanced technologies and tools, as well as well-established pathways for research translation and deployment.
A key pillar of this partnership is talent development - through endowed professorships, mentorship, training programmes, and hands-on research projects. We are grateful to Google for their support to establish a professorship at NUS, which will strengthen faculty leadership and research excellence in AI. We are confident that our joint efforts with Google will nurture the next generation of AI scientists, engineers, and innovators equipped to tackle real-world challenges. Together, we are well-positioned to drive AI breakthroughs that will transform lives, reshape industries, and advance the future of education, healthcare, and beyond."
Serene Sia, Country Director, Singapore and Malaysia, Google Cloud, said, "Google and NUS share a longstanding partnership, anchored on talent development and applying frontier technologies for public good. These include an on-campus Google Developer Group to equip students with advanced software skills; Google Cloud as a pioneering industry partner of the NUS AI Institute; cultivating talent to tackle biomedical challenges with AI; producing the world's first AI-powered legal journal podcast with NotebookLM, and a Google PhD Fellowship programme to recognise exceptional work in computer science. Our new collaboration truly builds on those successes; it's a significant step forward in Google's commitment to bringing new capabilities for scientific discovery to Singapore. NUS has consistently been at the forefront of Singapore's RIE ecosystem, supporting Singapore's transformation into a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy and society. By combining NUS' world-class multidisciplinary research capabilities with Google's world-class AI research and AI-optimised cloud infrastructure, this joint centre is poised to steer safe and responsible AI development and accelerate scientific progress that transforms public health, learning experiences, and other vital fields."
Joint Research and Innovation Centre
NUS and Google plan to establish a joint research and innovation centre, bringing together resources and technology to pursue experimental or applied AI projects across diverse domains.
There are also plans for a rapid prototyping sandbox to be established and governed by the joint centre to provide a controlled and flexible cloud-based environment, supported by Google Cloud's power-efficient Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), for experimentation, testing, and validation of the solutions developed under each of the domains, before they are deployed or scaled in real-world settings.
Examples of these domains include:
● AI in Education: Research aimed at utilising Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform to develop and evaluate AI-driven tools for adult education, including adaptive scaffolding, blended learning, context-aware nudging, course-specific AI companions, and psychometrically robust measurement of learner engagement, skill acquisition, and career progression. This supports the national emphasis on lifelong learning and continuous upskilling of Singaporeans for the evolving demands of various industries.
● AI in Legal: The development of a Singapore Law-specific LLM on Google Cloud by NUS Faculty of Law, NUS AI Institute, and NUS Computing. This domain-specific LLM will be grounded on local statutory interpretation, case precedents, and legal nuances to overcome the limitations of generic LLMs in legal contexts. This project aims to provide the core technology for an AI assistant supporting legal research, with potential to enhance productivity and access to contextually-relevant legal information across law firms, the judiciary, and public legal education.
● AI in Public Health (AI4PH): Research that aims to utilise AI to drive population-level health outcomes, by integrating foundational models with diverse data sources across healthcare, social services, and environmental systems. This will enable the development of agentic AI solutions to support preventive care under programmes like Healthier SG and promote cognitive health and active ageing.
Talent Development Programme and Google-Supported Professorship in AI
Complementing the joint centre, Google plans to establish an AI-focused talent development programme at NUS. This initiative aims to provide training opportunities and certification pathways in Google Cloud AI platforms and tools for NUS students and researchers to accelerate their applied AI research projects.
Additionally, Google intends to establish a Google-supported professorship at NUS to further promote faculty leadership in AI-related fields, foster even deeper collaboration between academia and industry, and contribute to cultivating the next generation of talent in AI and digital innovation.
