City state (Singapore) hopes research cash will buy global status: Nature: "The government announced on 7 July that its newly established National Research Foundation (NRF) will spend S$1.4 billion (US$876 million) during 2006–10 in three areas: biomedical research; environment and water technologies; and interactive and digital media. This is part of the S$5-billion five-year budget set aside for the NRF when it was created in January.

Another S$1 billion is earmarked for a project to attract world-class research institutes. As a start, the NRF says it will establish a joint research centre with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next year in Singapore, and hire 300–400 researchers to work there. How the remaining S$2.6 billion will be spent has yet to be decided."