Innovation drive hits talent roadblock

SINGAPORE — As Singapore strives to be Asia’s innovation capital, investing billions of dollars to build capabilities and fortify an ecosystem supporting research here, a shortage of specialised talent is turning out to be a big roadblock.

As more and more job vacancies emerge in research & development, experts say the competition for limited talent is pushing up wages even while there is no real increase in productivity.

This is driving biopharmaceutical companies with R&D operations here to relook their talent as well as research strategies to control costs.

“There is a shortage of life sciences professionals in Singapore who can pursue risk-laden projects. The challenge is to find appropriately skilled manpower to carry out research complying with international standards and execute research-oriented projects,” Mr Abhijit Ghosh, Pharmaceutical Leader to business consultancy PwC Singapore, told TODAY.

Mr Brian Henry, Executive Director for Early Discovery Pharmacology, MSD Translational Medicine Research Centre Singapore, said: “While the talent pool in Singapore is highly-qualified, identifying talent with the appropriate background, training, skillset and fit is always a challenge. The biggest challenge we face in biomedical research is in identifying candidates with prior working experience in a company research environment and with experience in the drug discovery and development process.”

An understanding of drug discovery research processes, Mr Henry explained, is difficult to teach in a classroom and can only be gained through direct working experience on projects in real-life settings. MSD is expanding, both in terms of headcount and research investments in Singapore, and expects to have around 50 scientists at its research lab in Biopolis by the end of the year.

“We expose and stretch top talent through various job rotations in different countries, including international assignments at one of our larger US-based Merck research sites, and providing opportunities for industrial training internships or through sponsorship of PhD or Postdoctoral fellowships. Such initiatives help to provide exposure to industry and to develop the talent required to support our research,” Mr Henry added.

Companies are also ramping up collaboration efforts, spreading their research projects across innovation platforms and partners. Bayer HealthCare, for instance, recently broadened its existing partnerships with pre-clinical and clinical researchers from institutions such as the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre and the National University Health System.

To address the talent crunch and related risks, some pharmaceutical companies have also started to farm out their R&D activities to partners such as small biotech start-ups. And while it is still not common in Singapore, elsewhere in the world, big pharmaceutical companies are partnering with dedicated open-innovation organisations that facilitate crowd-sourcing to help solve R&D challenges and other specific problems.

“It would be beneficial for companies in Singapore to emulate this practice as a possible way to address related challenges,” Mr Ghosh added.

The stiff competition for talent comes at a time when several other countries in Asia are scrambling to get a bigger pie of the R&D investments coming to the region.

“Singapore is in the race with Shanghai, Sydney, Taipei and Seoul to be the leading biotechnology hub in Asia. Now, Kobe in closely following too. Ramping up talent strategies is critical for both pharmaceutical companies as well as these competing nations, given the high demand for scientists, researchers and special-skilled talent in the region,” said Mr Siddharth Dutta, Industry Manager for life sciences at consultancy Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.