Shaping the DGC Through Collaboration: DGC R&D Forum Brings Singapore's Decarbonisation Ecosystem Together

On 7 July 2026, the Advanced Energy and Decarbonisation Office (AEDO) hosted the Decarbonisation Grand Challenge (DGC) R&D Forum, bringing together around 150 participants from industry, academia, and government.

Participants included senior leaders from Singapore's autonomous universities and research institutes, facility owners and operators from emissions-intensive industries, multinational companies, equipment manufacturers, technology startups, venture capitalists and venture builders.

The Forum featured the sharing of DGC's focus areas and challenge statements and specific technological challenges that Singapore seeks to address through research and innovation. We also introduced the newly established AEDO office, and how it would implement the DGC.

Beyond sharing of DGC's priorities and implementation plans, the Forum provided an opportunity to build connections and foster collaborations across the ecosystem, bringing Singapore a step closer to translating promising research into solutions that can be deployed locally.

Charting the next phase of decarbonisation R&D

The $800 million DGC, launched under Singapore's Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2030 (RIE2030) plan, aims to accelerate the development and demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies for Singapore's industry and power sectors.

At the Forum, Deputy Secretary Keith Tan from the Ministry of Trade and Industry shared the strategic impetus behind the DGC, its research priorities, and how Government agencies are working together to implement this national initiative.

DS Keith Tan presenting at the DGC Forum

AEDO's Executive Director (R&D) John Chen then outlined a refreshed approach to implementing the DGC, with a stronger emphasis on technology translation, scale-up and industry participation.

A highlight was the sharing of the DGC's research challenge statements, spanning areas such as low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives, carbon capture and utilisation, solar energy, alternative low-carbon technologies, energy storage and future power grid solutions. Explore DGC’s focus areas and challenge statements here.

These statements seek to focus research efforts on clearly defined technological challenges relevant to Singapore's needs, while providing a starting point for further engagement with researchers and industry partners.

These statements seek to focus research efforts on clearly defined technological challenges relevant to Singapore's needs, while providing a starting point for further engagement with researchers and industry partners.

AEDO ED John Chen sharing the DGC research challenge statements

Putting industry at the heart of innovation

A central theme of the Forum was the importance of bringing industry into the innovation process from the outset.

Under the DGC, AEDO aims to strengthen industry involvement at every stage of technology development — from defining real-world problems and shaping research projects, to test-bedding, scaling up and commercialising promising solutions.

AEDO also highlighted its commitment to making R&D funding processes more responsive to industry needs, with greater speed, clearer research objectives and closer partnerships throughout the project lifecycle.

To support this approach, AEDO is deepening its technical capabilities and developing consistent techno-economic assessment frameworks to evaluate the potential of emerging technologies and guide their progression towards deployment.

These shifts were positively received by attendees, particularly industry representatives who welcomed the greater emphasis on commercial relevance and more responsive funding processes.

The discussions also generated valuable feedback on the research challenge statements, including the need to balance clearly defined research priorities with sufficient flexibility for novel and potentially transformative ideas to emerge. This feedback will help inform the continued refinement of the DGC's approach.

Connecting the ecosystem to unlock new opportunities

The engagement of stakeholders across the value chain reflects the collaborative effort needed to bring decarbonisation technologies from the laboratory to real-world applications.

Researchers bring scientific expertise and novel ideas, while industry partners provide insights into operational needs, deployment constraints and commercial viability. Technology providers, startups and investors play equally important roles in transforming research outcomes into market-ready solutions and supporting their eventual scale-up. AEDO is here to facilitate those connections and bring the ecosystem together. Explore Singapore’s decarbonisation research ecosystem here.

The Forum created opportunities for these stakeholders to exchange perspectives, identify shared interests and explore potential R&D collaborations.

The energy in the room was encouraging, with conversations continuing well beyond the formal programme. The strong turnout and positive feedback reinforced the value of creating dedicated platforms for engagement across Singapore's decarbonisation ecosystem.

Building momentum towards real-world impact

For AEDO, the DGC R&D Forum was more than a progress update. It represented an important step towards building a more connected, industry-oriented R&D ecosystem — one where research priorities are shaped by real-world needs, promising technologies have clearer pathways towards deployment, and partnerships are formed early in the innovation journey.

The success of the Forum is an encouraging start, but the real impact will come from the collaborations, technologies and solutions that follow.

Building on the momentum from the Forum, AEDO will continue engaging partners across the innovation ecosystem, fostering R&D collaborations and working towards the shared goal of accelerating decarbonisation in Singapore.