By Nicholas Yong

AVIATION research and development in Singapore got a shot in the arm, with aircraft maker Airbus and the Economic Development Board (EDB) stepping up to groom postgraduate talent in the field.

Airbus' parent company, European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), and EDB will co-sponsor up to four years of aviation studies at PhD level for six students from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

An agreement was signed last Thursday between EADS and the EDB.

Three of the six places have been filled.

Recipients of this scholarship will be jointly supervised by their university professors and EADS researchers on work in areas such as data mining, or the process of extracting patterns from data, and reducing the influence of microwaves on electrical instruments.

This is the latest initiative to boost Singapore's stake in aerospace-related research and development (R&D), a field that has grown significantly in the last two years with government backing.

In 2007, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Science and Engineering Research Council teamed up with industry giants Boeing, EADS, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to pool talent and money for aerospace R&D.

A dozen more companies have since signed up with the programme, making it possibly the biggest R&D collaboration between the public and private sectors in the industry here.

The consortium is expected to have 25 members by next year.

Already, $14 million has been pooled, with almost equal amounts coming from the Government and industry.

The results of the group's 10 ongoing research projects will be announced in February.

Other industry initiatives include EADS' Innovation Works Singapore, the five-year-old Singapore branch of its worldwide research network.

Upon graduation, the six PhD students will work for three years for EADS in Singapore.

EADS chief technical officer Jean Botti stressed that R&D must not let up even in difficult times, and that the industry must take the lead.

Saying R&D will continue growing in the Republic, he added: 'Singapore has a unique position as a research and technology hub, and it is extremely important that we are a part of the hub. It also has young people with very strong education. I'm impressed by what I see here.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.