World’s first tropical climate data centre testbed, led by NUS and NTU, will boost Singapore’s competitiveness in sustainable data centres

The Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed (STDCT) – the first of its kind for the tropical environment – hosted by the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering (NUS CDE) is up and running, marking a significant milestone in data centre (DC) innovation in Singapore.

The groundbreaking initiative, led by NUS and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), is funded by the National Research Foundation in line with the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan¹ to position Singapore as a leading centre for green services and solutions to transform sustainable industries.

Bridging the gap between research and practical applications, this pioneer initiative brings together the academia and industry partners to fast-track the adoption of innovative and sustainable DC cooling solutions tailored for the tropical climate. These collaborative efforts will set new sustainability standards for DC operations in the tropics.

The STDCT, which is the key infrastructure that supports a cutting-edge national-level research programme on DC innovations, was officially launched today by Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Alvin Tan, in the presence of distinguished guests from the academia research community and industry.

During the keynote address by Mr Tan, he expressed the importance of the STDCT facility in supporting “Singapore’s efforts in cutting-edge research on data centre innovation, and in growing data centres in a manner that is sustainable and aligned with our climate change commitments.”

He added that, “In the long-term, the facility will also be a platform for other universities and companies to validate new DC solutions. This will enable the industry to have wider adoption of best practices for sustainable tropical DCs.”

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