SINGAPORE - The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) has launched three joint initiatives on Thursday aimed at helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) here to adopt new technology and boost their productivity.

A*Star announced a partnership with Spring Singapore and signed two separate memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Singapore Productivity Centre (SPC) and NTUC Health at the agency's annual SME Day on Thursday.

Spring Singapore will provide funding support for SMEs that wish to work with A*Star. The agency will help SMEs by licensing its pre-developed ready-to-go technologies for their use and by seconding its researchers to firms in need of technical expertise.

A*Star's partnership with SPC focuses on focuses on using A*Star's ready-to-go technologies to address gaps within the retail, food and hotel industries. With NTUC Health, A*Star will deploy its technologies to the former's nursing home so as to increase productivity and improve the quality of care for the nursing home's residents.

At the event, three A*Star researchers were also presented with the T-Up Excellence Award. This award is given to researchers who make exceptional contributions to SMEs as part of A*Star's Growing Enterprises with Technology Upgrade (GET-Up) programme, which seconds A*Star researchers to SMEs to assist in research and development.