$500,000 fund to turn innovative ideas into real solutions to improve HDB living

Those who receive the funding will have to match dollar for dollar the government grant, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said on Saturday morning. This is to ensure they are committed.

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Here is the press statement from the Housing Development Board:

HDB has launched a new Cool Ideas Fund to help participants of the "Cool Ideas for Better HDB Living" initiative turn their winning ideas into workable prototypes for test-bedding. More than 220 ideas have been received since the launch of the Cool Ideas for Better HDB Living crowdsourcing initiative in July 2011.

The Cool Ideas Fund aims to help winning participants to transform their mock prototypes into workable ones for actual test-bedding in HDB residential blocks, so that the prototypes can be commercialised if they choose to. The availability of this fund will help to bridge the gap between the ideas stage and the test-bedding stage.

Each feasible proposal will be given a grant capped at $10,000 to support the development cost as well as the associated test-bedding costs of their prototype. To ensure that awardees are committed to the process, they will have to match dollar for dollar, the grant received from HDB. HDB will set aside $500,000 for this Fund, to be built up over 3 years, to support 50 good ideas.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry & National Development, Lee Yi-Shyan said, "It is very encouraging to see such strong involvement from our residents. Public participation has increased by more than 50 per cent since the Cool Ideas platform was launched. This shows that we have residents who want to do their part in improving our living environment."

How Residents Have Turned Winning Ideas into Market-ready Products

"I think this Cool Ideas platform is great. I am sure there are more people with many cool ideas who ought to know about it. It has given the elderly, like myself and my friends, the chance to do something good for the environment", said Mdm Mary Quah. Mdm Quah is a co-creator of the Sustainable Plant Box, a winning idea in HDB's latest Cool Ideas for Better Living Competition. The simple idea began from the desire to grow vegetables and plants in the home with the use of recycled water and compost made from kitchen waste. It is now ready to be released into the market for purchase.