Message from BEARS Director

Welcome to BEARS, the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore, a multi-disciplinary, multi-national, non-profit, University of California-based company dedicated to facilitating progress in Singapore’s energy and building sectors.

Initially funded in 2011 by the Singapore National Research Foundation’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), BEARS programs pursue research, graduate education, and technological innovation in the areas of power generation and the efficiency of buildings. The alliance encompasses approximately six government agencies, three universities, and several industries in Singapore and beyond.

It is through these large-scale international collaborations that the Grand Challenges facing the world can be addressed. These collaborations allow researchers in Singapore to leverage facilities at UC Berkeley and for researchers at UC Berkeley to similarly leverage facilities in Singapore, thus allowing an acceleration of research results.

BEARS seeks to serve as the anchor point for the UC Berkeley community in Asia particularly serving as the of engagement with the nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). BEARS also seeks to serve UC Berkeley’s mission to advance teaching, research, and public service.

BEARS research programs have focused on sustainability, renewable energy, and decarbonization:

The Singapore-Berkeley Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy, or SinBeRISE.

The SinBeRISE program goal is to improve the way power is generated through the development of novel solar cell materials and processing techniques. The program explored the production of liquid fuels and high value chemical compounds from a feedstock of CO₂.

The Singapore-Berkeley Building Efficiency and Sustainability in the Tropics, or SinBerBEST.

The SinBerBEST program goal is to optimize the way power is deployed to the built environment. This goal is achieved through deploying new materials, information technology, new types of sensors, innovative control and operating systems, and novel testing methodologies. The intelligent integration of all these components is a key to successfully optimizing the built environment.