Singapore research network named WHO collaborating centre for clinical trials

On August 31st, a Singapore-based research network crossed a threshold that few institutions in the region ever reach. ADVANCE-ID—the acronym stands for Advancing Clinical Evidence in Infectious Diseases—was formally designated as a WHO collaborating centre, a designation that carries weight in global health circles because it means the World Health Organization has entrusted this network with direct support for its programmes and strategic priorities. Mo Yin, the network's director, stood at the ceremony and spoke about what the appointment meant: access. Singapore's clinical trial expertise flowing outward to regional partners; the scale, diversity, and experience of those partners flowing back.

The network itself is housed at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and operates across more than 30 hospitals scattered throughout Asia. It launched in March 2022 with a specific focus that sets it apart from nearly every other clinical trial network in the world—antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. The choice of Singapore as headquarters was deliberate. Asia has borne a disproportionate burden of AMR deaths, and the region needed a coordinated infrastructure to test new antibiotics and preventive strategies at scale. ADVANCE-ID became that infrastructure.

With this WHO designation, which runs through April 2030, ADVANCE-ID becomes the first collaborating centre in the Western Pacific region dedicated to clinical trials. (Pakistan's Aga Khan University operates a similar centre elsewhere.) It is also Singapore's 13th WHO collaborating centre overall, joining others focused on social prescribing and food contamination monitoring. The appointment is not ceremonial. It opens doors. Mo Yin, who is also an infectious diseases senior consultant at the National University Hospital, was explicit about this: the designation gives ADVANCE-ID formal standing to reach governments, to shape policy conversations, to make the evidence it generates matter beyond the laboratory.

The network's reach is already substantial. It works with all three medical schools in Singapore and draws investigators and institutions from all three public healthcare clusters. The National Centre for Infectious Diseases and the Communicable Diseases Agency provide support. But the real work happens across borders—in the hospitals and research sites scattered through Asia that have committed to running trials under ADVANCE-ID's protocols and standards. The goal is straightforward: raise the quality of clinical research in the region, generate better scientific evidence faster, and do it in ways that no single country could accomplish alone.

Mo Yin framed the appointment as recognition that ADVANCE-ID has already been doing something valuable. But it is also a vote of confidence in what comes next. The network's capabilities—trial design, site activation, data systems, capacity building—were built around antimicrobial resistance, but they are portable. Over time, ADVANCE-ID plans to apply these same tools to other infectious disease priorities and emerging health threats. The designation gives it the formal mandate to do so. For a region that has learned, repeatedly, that infectious diseases do not respect borders, having a coordinated research infrastructure with WHO backing is not luxury. It is infrastructure for the next crisis.