TECHNOLOGY-SAVVY entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises keen to commercialise their R&D ideas can now tap on SPRING Singapore's new Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme (TECS).

The $50 million programme is an extension of Spring's Technology Innovation Programme, which was launched in Aug 2006.

This was announced on Thursday by Spring's Chairman Philip Yeo at the Spring Enterprise Conference 2008.

He said TECS aims to support more than 100 ideas over the next five years and bring them to the market.

The funding will be given in two phases.

The first critical phase is for Proof-of-Concept, where proposals will be assessed based on their commercial potential and technical feasibility.

Successful applicants can get 100 per cent grant support of up to $250,000.

The second phase is for Proof-of-Value, open to applicants who wish to carry out further R&D on the project. This includes the development of a working prototype.

Successful applicants can receive 85 per cent grant support of up to $500,000 to fund the development from proof-of-concept to productisation and commercialisation.