The top prize in this year’s singapore prize carries a cash prize of 3,000 Singapore dollars (US$2,158) and a commissioned trophy. The winning team also gets a 12-month gift code to StoryTel, a mobile storytelling app for kids.

It was the work of a team that helped the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) to successfully bring in and adapt two German-made submarines that won the defence technology prize (DTP) for the military category at this year’s awards ceremony on Wednesday. Ms Jovin Foo, 28, from the Naval Systems Programme Centre at DSTA, led the project that lasted four years. Her group optimised the submarines’ original designs to fit the shorter Asian physiques of RSN personnel who would man them.

Ms Foo was one of six individuals and teams to win the DTP this year. Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen presented the prizes to the winners at a ceremony in the National Museum of Singapore. “The defence technology prize honours outstanding individual and team contributions from across the spectrum of defence capability development,” he said. “It recognises that newer technologies will always emerge, even after defence systems are optimised with existing technology. This iteration between innovation and disruption creates endless cycles, enabling us to constantly improve on the past and defend our territory from threats,” he added.

This year’s shortlist, announced by NUS in July, features fiction and non-fiction, with 12 top prizes awarded for works published in Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. More than half of the shortlisted writers were making their debuts in this category. They include Jeremy Tiang, who won the top prize in English for his book Seven Hundred Years: A History of Singapore; and Hidayah Amin, whose book Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Gelam (2019, available here) won the history category.

The book, which traces the history of a part of Singapore that many know only as a tourist attraction, shines a light on the lives of ordinary people there. Its citation praised it for showing that anyone who has lived through a proportion of their lives in the country can become historians by combining synthesis and primary sources. It also affirms that the shared imagination of a nation, in which its history plays a crucial role, is an essential glue holding societies together.

The winners will be feted at a gala dinner next month at the Parkview Room at the National Museum of Singapore. Performances by globally renowned artists and musicians are planned. The prize ceremony is expected to draw global leaders, businessmen and investors keen to tap on Singapore’s innovative capabilities to further their own goals.