Fusionopolis Phase 1’s iconic twin towers (Connexis and Symbiosis) were designed by renowned architect Kisho Kurokawa as Singapore’s first integrated “work-live-play-learn” R&D complex .
Introduction:
Fusionopolis is a research and development hub located in Singapore’s one-north business park at Buona Vista. Launched in the 2000s as part of Singapore’s strategy to foster a knowledge-based innovation economy, Fusionopolis was conceived to cluster high-tech laboratories, offices, and creative spaces together with residential and lifestyle amenities . It forms the centerpiece of Singapore’s infocommunications technology, media, physical sciences and engineering research efforts, complementing the biomedical-focused Biopolis nearby . Over the years, Fusionopolis has expanded through multiple development phases, housing major government research institutes, corporate R&D labs, and tech start-ups under one roof. This report provides a detailed history and timeline of Fusionopolis – from its founding vision and construction phases to its key tenants, notable milestones, and its impact on Singapore’s economy and global reputation as a tech hub.
Founding Vision and Initial Purpose
Fusionopolis traces its origins to a late-1990s national vision to create a world-class science hub in Singapore. In September 1998, then Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan announced plans for a 200-hectare “one-north” R&D park at Buona Vista, backed by a S$5 billion investment, to foster high-tech entrepreneurship and provide a conducive environment for start-ups . Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) was appointed as the lead agency in 2000 to master-plan this science hub, which would integrate research facilities with living and recreational amenities in a “self-contained” community . The one-north development was envisioned as a “work-live-play-learn” environment housing clusters in biomedical sciences, info-communications technology (ICT), media, and engineering .
Fusionopolis was conceived as the cluster focusing on ICT, media, physical sciences and engineering – essentially the engineering and digital technology pillar of one-north. It was initially code-named “Technopolis” during planning, but was renamed Fusionopolis in 2003 to reflect its mission of “encouraging the fusion of ideas from the arts, business and technology sectors” . The goal was to co-locate public research institutes, private tech companies and creative professionals to spur interdisciplinary innovation . As part of Singapore’s Technopreneurship 21 initiative, Fusionopolis aimed to attract top global talent and R&D investments by offering a vibrant, intellectually stimulating campus where scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs could interact freely . The concept broke from past industrial parks by providing not just labs and offices, but also residences, retail, arts spaces and even a theater – all in one complex – to cultivate a dynamic community of innovation.
Development Timeline of Fusionopolis
Fusionopolis’s development unfolded in phases over nearly two decades. Key milestones in its history include:
(Beyond Phase 5, the one-north district continues to evolve with new facilities like JTC LaunchPad for start-ups, but the formal Fusionopolis development is considered complete with these five phases. By 2020, one-north’s planned clusters – Biopolis, Fusionopolis, Mediapolis, etc. – were largely realized, reinforcing Singapore’s innovation infrastructure.)
Major Tenants and Research Institutions
From its inception, Fusionopolis was populated with a mix of public R&D agencies and private high-tech companies to catalyze collaboration. ASTAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) made Fusionopolis the home of its Science and Engineering Research Council institutes. Upon Phase 1’s opening in 2008, ASTAR relocated two key research institutes – the Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) and the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) – into Fusionopolis, allowing them to share resources and expertise under one roof . Also housed in Phase 1 was a division of A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute, alongside offices of Singapore’s info-communications regulatory agency (then the Media Development Authority, later IMDA) . Early private tenants included multinational tech firms such as Thales (which opened a technology center in 2008) and Linden Lab (developer of Second Life) . Even the Asian Food Channel television network chose Fusionopolis for its headquarters, reflecting the development’s appeal beyond pure engineering fields .
With the completion of Fusionopolis Two (Phase 2A) in 2015, four more A*STAR institutes moved in, making Fusionopolis one of the largest concentrations of public R&D talent in Asia. The Institute of Microelectronics (IME), Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Data Storage Institute (DSI) and Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) all co-located in Fusionopolis Two, joining I²R and IHPC to form a powerful research cluster spanning electronics, materials science, info-communications and advanced manufacturing . These institutes serve as anchor tenants, occupying the entire Synthesis tower and parts of Kinesis and Innovis . By clustering these labs together, Fusionopolis enables shared facilities (such as clean rooms and prototyping workshops) and fosters interdisciplinary projects that cross traditional boundaries of science and engineering.
Fusionopolis has also attracted major corporate tenants, including global names that boost Singapore’s standing as a tech hub. A landmark tenant is Lucasfilm: its Sandcrawler building (Phase 4) opened in 2014 as the company’s Singapore base, complete with production studios and a private digital theater for animation screenings . The Sandcrawler also accommodates Disney’s Southeast Asia HQ and ESPN Asia Pacific, making Fusionopolis a regional nexus for digital media and entertainment technology . Another headline occupant is Apple. In 2015, Apple Inc. significantly expanded its presence in Singapore by leasing roughly 20,000 m² (215,000 sq ft) of space in the Innovis tower of Fusionopolis Two . This move – one of the largest business park leases in Singapore that year – instantly filled Innovis to capacity and brought hundreds of Apple R&D staff to one-north . Apple’s arrival was seen as a strong endorsement of Fusionopolis’s value; market observers noted that Apple’s presence “boosts Fusionopolis’s standing as an innovation hub” and spurred increased interest from other tech firms in locating at one-north . (Indeed, Apple went on to open its first ever Developer Center in Southeast Asia at one-north in 2024, offering labs and training for app developers in the region .)
Other notable tenants include NEC (which took space in Innovis), startup incubators, venture capital offices, and numerous small and medium tech enterprises that benefit from the cluster’s ecosystem . The retail podiums and public areas of Fusionopolis host tech showcase centers and events, while the rooftop gardens and sky bridges facilitate informal interactions among tenants. This deliberate mix of public institutes, corporate labs, and supporting amenities has created a vibrant community in Fusionopolis, with over 16,000 people working in the Fusionopolis–Biopolis vicinity by the mid-2010s (scientists, engineers, innovators, and entrepreneurs) .
Role in Singapore’s Science & Innovation Ecosystem
Fusionopolis plays a central role in Singapore’s science, technology and innovation (STI) ecosystem. As part of the one-north development, it was purpose-built to break down silos between different research fields and between public and private sectors. The cluster’s very name and design emphasize “fusion” – co-locating diverse disciplines to encourage cross-pollination of ideas . By housing multiple A*STAR institutes together, Fusionopolis allows researchers in data science, material engineering, microelectronics, robotics, and other areas to collaborate more easily. Prime Minister Lee noted that putting I²R and IHPC under one roof “enhanced their capabilities and found many more applications for their research,” catalyzing joint projects with companies ranging from telecom operators to aerospace firms . Likewise, the proximity of Fusionopolis to Biopolis (the biomedical cluster) has enabled new interdisciplinary fields (for example, bioengineering and healthtech), as biomedical scientists and engineers can interact readily across the street .
Beyond physical adjacency, Fusionopolis anchors a broader innovation network. In 2015, JTC launched LaunchPad @ one-north – a start-up incubator campus – right next to Fusionopolis, deliberately so that young ventures can tap into the expertise and laboratories of A*STAR institutes and MNCs nearby . This co-location strategy aims to speed up commercialization of research by connecting start-ups with mentors, investors, and cutting-edge facilities in Fusionopolis and Biopolis. The entire one-north district is thus engineered as an “innovation district”, where research, innovation, and enterprise form a self-reinforcing loop in a campus-like environment . Fusionopolis provides the critical mass of R&D infrastructure and talent at the heart of this ecosystem.
Furthermore, Fusionopolis has been a testbed for new technologies and an enabler of national initiatives such as Smart Nation. The complex’s advanced labs and computing facilities have supported research in domains like urban sustainability, AI, and autonomous vehicles. For example, autonomous vehicle trials in the one-north area have involved Fusionopolis-based research teams, leveraging the environment to experiment with self-driving cars in a real-world setting . The government’s R&D strategy documents explicitly identify one-north (including Fusionopolis) as key to fostering public-private partnerships and “a vibrant ecosystem to translate research and knowledge into practical value” . By bringing global companies (e.g. Applied Materials, Rolls-Royce) into collaborative projects with local institutes at Fusionopolis, Singapore has been able to anchor high-value activities like semiconductor R&D and aerospace innovation domestically .
In short, Fusionopolis functions as the physical nexus of Singapore’s science and tech ambitions – an R&D crucible where government research bodies, industry players, and entrepreneurs intermingle. It exemplifies the “public sector as catalyst, private sector as engine” approach: the state invested in world-class facilities and institutions at Fusionopolis, which in turn attract private R&D investment and talent. This model has helped Singapore climb global innovation benchmarks. In the four years from 2011 to 2015 alone, A*STAR’s institutes (many of which are in Fusionopolis) undertook over 7,400 industry projects, catalyzing more than S$1 billion in industry R&D spending – a clear indicator of increased research-commercialization linkage. Fusionopolis’s interdisciplinary setup is cited as a factor in enabling such collaborations, as companies can easily find research partners and expertise in the immediate vicinity.
Notable Events and Achievements
Since its opening, Fusionopolis has been associated with several notable events and achievements:
Economic Impact and Global Reputation
Fusionopolis has had a significant impact on Singapore’s economy and its global reputation as a technology hub. Economically, the development of Fusionopolis and the broader one-north cluster represents a deliberate shift of Singapore’s growth model from labor-intensive manufacturing toward R&D, innovation, and high-value knowledge industries . By investing in Fusionopolis, Singapore signaled its commitment to building an innovation-led economy. The hub has generated thousands of high-skilled jobs in research, engineering, and technology sectors – jobs that not only employ Singapore’s growing pool of scientists and engineers, but also attract international talent to relocate to Singapore. The co-location of research institutes and corporate labs has improved the efficiency of innovation cycles, translating to faster commercialization of new products and services. This contributes to GDP in emerging sectors (like biotech, digital media, cleantech) and enhances productivity in traditional industries through technology adoption .
One measurable outcome is the growth of Singapore’s start-up and entrepreneurial scene over the past decade. From 2005 to 2014 – a period coinciding with Fusionopolis’s rise – the number of start-ups in Singapore more than doubled from ~24,000 to 55,000 . Singapore also climbed into the Global Entrepreneurship Index top ten by the mid-2010s . While multiple factors are at play, the presence of innovation campuses like Fusionopolis has been a crucial enabler, providing start-ups access to mentorship, funding (via nearby venture firms), and technical infrastructure that would be hard to afford independently. The success of Block71 (a start-up hub at one-north) and LaunchPad can be partly attributed to their strategic placement next to Fusionopolis, allowing entrepreneurs to easily tap into A*STAR labs or seek expert advice from researchers . This tight clustering has been frequently likened to Silicon Valley’s ecosystem, earning one-north the nickname of “Singapore’s Silicon Valley” in local media .
Fusionopolis has also helped anchor multinational corporations’ R&D investments in Singapore. Companies that establish research centres in Fusionopolis often bring in capital expenditure for labs, fund local research collaborations, and develop new technologies in Singapore that can spawn manufacturing or services opportunities. For instance, Applied Materials’ semiconductor R&D lab and P&G’s innovation centre have led to supplier networks and spin-off activities supporting the local economy . The confidence shown by tech giants like Google (which built a large campus at nearby Mapletree Business City), Apple, Microsoft, Grab and others in expanding their engineering teams in Singapore in recent years can be traced back to the robust innovation infrastructure epitomized by Fusionopolis . Moreover, the concentration of talent at Fusionopolis (with 16 public research institutes and numerous corporate labs in one-north by 2015 ) creates network effects that make Singapore an attractive location for emerging industries (such as AI, fintech, and urban solutions). This contributes to Singapore’s global reputation as a leading innovation hub in Asia, often ranking highly in indexes for innovation input and output.
On the world stage, Fusionopolis and one-north have become a showcase for Singapore’s urban planning and innovation strategy. Foreign dignitaries, tech leaders, and academic experts frequently visit one-north to study its model of clustering education, research, business, and lifestyle in a single district. The Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore has even published a case study on one-north as an Urban Systems example of fostering research, innovation and entrepreneurship . The successful development of Fusionopolis has enhanced Singapore’s credibility when pitching for knowledge-intensive investments – the country is seen not just as a financial or trading hub, but as a place where cutting-edge R&D is done and innovations are born. In addition, Fusionopolis’s multidisciplinary environment has positioned Singapore well in addressing complex global challenges (like smart city development and sustainability) which require integrated solutions. By having tech engineers, data scientists, urban planners, and media creators working in proximity, Singapore can assemble cross-functional teams quickly to tackle such challenges – an agility that bolsters its international standing.
In summary, from its founding vision in the late 1990s to its full realization in the mid-2010s, Fusionopolis has grown into a cornerstone of Singapore’s innovation landscape. It has fulfilled its purpose of fusing diverse talents and industries, driving advances in science and technology, and propelling Singapore’s evolution into a knowledge economy. The development’s phased timeline – marked by bold planning, iconic architecture, and strategic tenant mix – mirrors Singapore’s own journey of transformation. Today, Fusionopolis stands not only as a cluster of buildings, but as a symbol of Singapore’s resolve to be a global science and tech hub. Its impact is evident in the thriving ecosystem of researchers, entrepreneurs and creators who call one-north home, and in the many innovations and collaborations that have emanated from this “fusion” of ideas in the heart of Singapore.
Sources: Significant information was gathered from official Singapore government sources and reputable publications, including the National Library Board Singapore Infopedia , JTC Corporation releases , speeches by the Prime Minister’s Office , and credible news outlets like The Business Times and Channel NewsAsia. These provide a verified account of Fusionopolis’s development and its role in Singapore’s tech ecosystem.