Trust but verify: The future of information research in S'pore

SINGAPORE has managed to build an enviable economic position, despite lacking natural resources, thanks to its greatest assets: knowledge and people. The Singaporean government realises this and has encouraged the knowledge economy by allocating S$16 billion in support of research, innovation and enterprise between 2011 and 2015. Coupled with the building and continual development of dedicated areas such as one-north for the purpose of research and development, the government's emphasis on research enablement is clear. These positive moves will have strong outcomes for the country's future.

However, Singapore's research landscape has also presented significant challenges. A shortage of qualified and experienced scientists means that the government has had to actively recruit researchers, highlighting the importance of boosting researcher numbers. Positively, we have seen some progress towards ensuring a steady supply of local and foreign talent that can fuel growth in engineering and the sciences, including the provision of scholarship funds for science students that provide financial assistance to promising undergraduates through to their doctorates.

However, undergraduate-focused efforts are apt to ignore a key fact: that the grooming of the nation's future researchers starts even in kindergarten. Children's habits for finding and manipulating information are developed early and honed through everyday encounters. The world's current media landscape thus proves to be both a threat and opportunity for development of skills. Over two trillion Google searches were conducted in 2014 alone (more than five billion per day), illustrating the increasing reliance on online sources for information and research.