SINGAPORE – Imagine reaching your 70s and beyond with the strength to get up from the floor without using your hands, or the stamina to hike mountain trails across China or the Andes.
In super-aged Singapore, where seniors aged 65 and above will constitute one in four residents by 2030 and centenarians are more common than ever, this vision represents the future of ageing.
The country is shifting from sick care to preventive care, aiming to add more healthy years to life and to shorten the years spent in poor health, disability and dependence.
The strategy is being propelled by a massive research push that aims to convert the nation into a test bed for extending healthspan – the number of years someone lives in good health – enabling Singaporeans to start managing their health early.
The $350 million longevity bet under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2030 (RIE2030) framework was launched in May 2026.
Although biological age clocks, which test cellular health rather than calendar years, and geroscience, the study of the biological causes of ageing, represent its cutting-edge roots, the strategy spans much further. Crucially, it also addresses the socio-environmental factors that influence how we age.
The aim of this grand challenge is to help Singaporeans age more healthily, with a focus on safeguarding mental sharpness and physical mobility, to help prevent conditions like dementia or frailty.
lt brings together research institutions, healthcare partners and enterprises to develop solutions, ranging from diagnostic tools to biomarkers – biological molecules found in blood, other body fluids or tissues, that tell doctors what is going on in the body and whether it is normal.
It will also look at health monitoring technologies and assistive rehabilitation, and address key ageing challenges such as cognitive impairment and physical function decline.
Under Singapore’s Healthier SG preventive care initiative, residents can step into a general practitioner (GP) clinic to get a personalised health plan, though doctors today are largely limited to tracking standard health screenings like blood pressure, cholesterol, mammograms, and stool tests to rule out diseases, and recommending simple lifestyle habits such as exercise or community activities.
Within several years, however, things could look different. Residents could potentially visit a GP to test for early cognitive decline, receive a biological age assessment to find out if they are ageing faster or slower than expected, followed by a precision plan to target physiological decline before illness or frailty sets in.
Chong Yap Seng, the executive director of the Grand Challenge on Maximising Healthy and Successful Longevity compares this proactive prevention approach to routine vehicle maintenance. “You don’t bring your car in only when you have an accident or (when) it stops working; you advise people (to send it) for regular servicing. We need that for humans as well,” he said.
Democratising longevity
Over the next five years, the health longevity grand challenge, which is led by the National Research Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, will establish baseline data on how Singapore’s population ages at a biological level.
This means looking beyond chronological age to see how cells, tissues, and molecular systems gradually deteriorate over time. For example, scientists can track chemical changes in DNA (epigenetic clocks) to evaluate cellular health or measure inflammatory proteins released by lingering, damaged cells that wear down the body over time.
The goal is to validate new biomarkers and screening tools for brain health and physical function, and interventions that can be effectively deployed across the broader population, said Chong.
“This means that for the average Singaporean, instead of getting diagnosed with dementia or sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) when it is already quite advanced, your GPs might potentially be able to detect and intercept these conditions much earlier,” he said.
“Overall, we are also likely to have more evidence, based on our biology, genetics, environment and lifestyle patterns, on healthy longevity interventions that actually work for Singaporeans.”
These interventions can range from lifestyle modifications and social or digital innovations to the use of supplements or prescription medications, he added.
For example, if physical function tests show early signs of muscle loss, doctors could possibly prescribe a targeted plan using specific exercise regimens and supplements to slow the biological decline.
In contrast to expensive longevity clinics around the world that target affluent clients with costly packages, unvalidated therapies, and high-tech options such as hyperbaric oxygen chambers or red light treatment, the Singapore Government is pursuing an approach focused on democratising healthcare – making it available to all.
Brian Kennedy, director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University Health System (NUHS), said: “We’re not studying $100,000 interventions at the university. We’re doing things we can scale, like repurposed drugs and supplements… and biomarker (tests) that cost $200 or less.”
Chong said that while global scientists can easily publish promising longevity research in academic papers, most nations fail to move the needle because they lack a way to scale these discoveries to the general public.
Director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at NUHS Brian Kennedy (left) and executive director of the Grand Challenge on Maximising Healthy and Successful Longevity Chong Yap Seng.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Here, the network of active ageing centres (AACs), which are community hubs that keep seniors socially and physically engaged, are a “wonderful platform for the distribution of public goods”, he said.
These centres form a core pillar of Age Well SG, a $3.5 billion national programme aimed at helping Singaporeans age well in the community over the next decade.
While Age Well SG serves as an operational and infrastructural system, the ageing grand challenge is the research engine that could come up with the breakthroughs to further power it.
Integrating the grand challenge’s research into AACs ensures that scientific breakthroughs in brain and muscle health don’t stay in university labs, but are delivered directly to seniors near their homes.
Kennedy, who is chief scientist of the healthy longevity grand challenge, highlighted Singapore’s unprecedented financial and strategic commitment.
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