What Singapore-ETH Centre does

Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) is a research institution established in 2010 and operated by ETH Zurich within Singapore's CREATE campus (Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise), which was founded by Singapore's National Research Foundation. The organization's stated focus is global environmental sustainability, and it serves the academic research community — researchers and academics from ETH Zurich and Singapore's research universities — by providing a platform for international interdisciplinary collaboration and access to state-of-the-art research facilities. SEC's institutional architecture ties it to ETH Zurich's 16 departments across architecture, engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences, and it maintains a partnership network spanning NUS, NTU, SMU, SUTD, Paul Scherrer Institut, and EPFL.

The institution does not operate a commercial product or pricing model. Its underlying technology is academic research infrastructure: a hosted research environment within the CREATE Tower at 1 Create Way, Singapore, supported by ETH Zurich's centralized web CMS, IT services, and content platforms. Revenue mechanics are grant-driven, not commercial — funding flows from Singapore's National Research Foundation as part of the CREATE program, with academic and institutional support from ETH Zurich. SEC distributes outputs via academic publications, conferences, and direct institutional collaboration rather than commercial channels; there is no disclosed pricing, no products-as-a-service offering, and no named external customers. The core customer segment is the academic research community, with secondary engagement through government and inter-institutional research consortia.

Operationally, SEC complies with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the Swiss eCH-0059 V3.0 accessibility standard (inherited via ETH Zurich's CMS), and Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act 2012. The organization employs 163 people at its Singapore headquarters and is owned and governed by ETH Zurich — a Swiss federal institute of technology — with no VC, PE, or public-market ownership indicated.

Name

Singapore-ETH Centre

Legal name

Singapore-ETH Centre

Website

https://sec.ethz.ch

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) is a research institution in Singapore, established in 2010 within the CREATE campus. Operated by ETH Zurich and funded by Singapore's National Research Foundation, it conducts interdisciplinary research on global environmental sustainability for the academic research community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental Sustainability Research

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (611310), Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416)

akta.pro primary industry

Technical Universities with Strong Industry Partnerships (EDAHAEAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Environmental, Health & Safety / Sustainability (EHS, Environmental Compliance CE) (EDAAALAO), Engineering & Technical Professions (PE, Engineering CPD) (EDAAALAF)

Keywords

• Environmental sustainability research
• Academic research collaboration
• Interdisciplinary research programs
• University research partnerships
• Global sustainability science

Headquarters

HQ city

Singapore

HQ country

Singapore

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Funding: Funded by Singapore's National Research Foundation as part of the CREATE campus (Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise), with support from parent institution ETH Zurich

Core offering

Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) is a research center operated by ETH Zurich in Singapore, established under the CREATE (Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise) initiative. It conducts interdisciplinary research focused on global environmental sustainability, collaborating with ETH Zurich and Singaporean universities including NUS, NTU, SMU, and SUTD.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• National University of SingaporecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partner within the Singapore academic ecosystem, collaborating on interdisciplinary research initiatives related to environmental sustainability.
• Nanyang Technological UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey research partner providing expertise and collaboration opportunities in science and technology research areas.
• Singapore Management UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration partner contributing business and management expertise to sustainability research initiatives.
• Singapore University of Technology and DesigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign-focused research partner collaborating on innovative solutions for environmental sustainability.
• Paul Scherrer InstitutcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss research institute partner providing advanced research capabilities and expertise in natural and engineering sciences.
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausannecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSwiss federal institute of technology partner contributing to research excellence and academic collaboration.
• ETH ZurichflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent institution and primary founding partner of Singapore-ETH Centre. ETH Zurich provides academic oversight, research expertise, and connects SEC to its network of 16 departments across architecture, engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences.
• National Research Foundation SingaporeflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernment funding body that established the CREATE campus and provides core funding for the Singapore-ETH Centre as part of Singapore's research excellence initiative.

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART): Joint MIT-Singapore research center operating on the CREATE campus. Directly comparable as a cross-border research collaboration in Singapore with a leading US technical university, sharing the same funding structure and mission of advancing high-impact research.
• CREATE Campus (National Research Foundation Singapore): The overarching CREATE campus that houses SEC and other international research centers. Directly comparable as the governance and funding umbrella for SEC's operations, providing insight into SEC's structural funding and strategic context.
• Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) at CREATE: Also an ETH Zurich research center under the CREATE campus in Singapore, focused on urban sustainability research. Highly comparable as a sibling institution with the same funding model (NRF) and parent (ETH Zurich), but operating in a different sustainability sub-domain.
• Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute: Joint research institute between Tsinghua University and UC Berkeley located in Shenzhen. Comparable as a cross-border technical-university research partnership focused on sustainability-adjacent topics, with similar funding structure and academic-industry collaboration mandate.

Broad incumbents

• ETH Zurich (parent institution): SEC's parent institution and a top global technical university. Comparable as the source of SEC's academic mission, governance, and research network, and a benchmark for the kind of scale SEC could support if it expands.
• Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment: Stanford's hub for environmental sustainability research. Comparable mission (interdisciplinary environmental sustainability research) but at much larger scale within a US university, providing a benchmark for SEC's potential upside.
• MIT Senseable City Lab: MIT research lab focused on urban sustainability, data, and environmental sensing. Comparable as a leading interdisciplinary sustainability research outfit with strong industry partnerships, though smaller in scope than a full university institute.
• Max Planck Institutes (Earth System & Sustainability): Max Planck Society operates multiple institutes focused on earth system science and sustainability. Comparable as a network of research institutions conducting fundamental environmental sustainability research with strong government backing.
• Imperial College London Grantham Institute: Imperial College's institute for climate change and environmental research. Comparable as a university-affiliated research entity focused on global environmental sustainability with strong policy and industry partnerships.
• Cambridge Centre for Climate Science: University of Cambridge's interdisciplinary climate research center. Comparable as an elite-university-led sustainability research hub with cross-departmental collaboration and external partnerships.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/singapore-eth-centre

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Singapore-ETH Centre