MIT announced today that it is creating a new research center in Singapore in collaboration with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore.

Through the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research Technology Center, which should be operational by the end of this year or early next year, MIT faculty, students, and postdocs can spend time in Singapore collaborating with researchers from various local universities and institutions. Singapore-based researchers may spend time in Cambridge as well.

MIT researchers associated with the center will be able to compete for and get access to funding from the NRF, which the Singapore government created early this year to coordinate and boost the island’s research efforts. The NRF’s emphasis is on biomedical science, water and environmental technologies, and interactive digital media.

The center’s director will be an MIT faculty member, who will be named this fall.

Singapore is becoming an attractive place for research. The Singapore government is pouring billions of dollars into R&D and recently pledged to double its overall research budget over the next four years.

“This center will provide new opportunities for MIT faculty not just to secure funding but also to explore new ways of doing international collaborations,” says Claude Canizares, associate provost of MIT.