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  Today Online 20 Jan 07
Disaster? That's our line
 UNSW Asia's research centre will respond to health threats and disasters
Lee U-Wen u-wen@mediacorp.com.sg

A DEADLY bird flu pandemic strikes the city of Guangzhou, causing panic throughout the region. A state of emergency is declared.

Meanwhile, over in Singapore at a quiet facility near Tanglin Road, experts begin a clockwork-like process to discover the root of the outbreak and where the victims are. A tracking programme similar to Google Earth quickly zooms in on the heart of the pandemic and monitors the number of cases, while another team of experts gets on the phone to aid organisations in China to come up with the best help measures available.

This is a ground-breaking role that researchers and scientists at the University of New South Wales Asia (UNSW Asia) — Singapore's first foreign private university — could play, with the setting up of a research centre that aims to respond quickly to health threats and natural disasters such as tsunamis.

In an interview with Today — ahead of the university's first open house at its Tanglin campus on Saturday — UNSW Asia president Greg Whittred revealed that the high-tech facility will be one of four research centres of excellence it will launch this year.

Professor Whittred, 53, said the centre will work with the World Health Organization and has already established networks in Australia and Taiwan. More partnerships are being explored in other countries to link up with healthcare providers and aid organisations.

"What we're doing here is a good example of inter-disciplinary research. We want our partners to work with us and give us the research problems to solve," he said.

Besides healthcare, UNSW Asia's three other key research areas are interactive and digital media, solar energy, and membrane and water technologies. These, said Prof Whittred, are all fields identified by the Singapore Government as new economic growth areas.

In all, it will cost $90 million to run the four centres over the next five years. The varsity has committed $30 million in seed funding, while business proposals have been developed to seek $60 million from the National Research Foundation.

Prof Whittred said the goal of UNSW Asia's research is not to compete with the work of the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University, but to complement them instead.

"What we bring to the table are niche programmes that don't go head-to-head with them. For example, there is no research in solar energy here to speak of, so we can be truly world-class in that area," he said.

Parents and students who want a sneak peek of what the UNSW Asia's research centres and facilities have to offer can attend the open house on Saturday from 10am to 4pm.

Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam will officially open the temporary campus at Kay Siang Road, which will welcome its first batch of 300 students in March and another 500 in August.

UNSW Asia will move to its new 20ha campus near the Singapore Expo in Changi in 2009. For more details, visit www.unswasia.com.sg.
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