The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) inaugurated two centers on August 19 in its effort to establish Singapore as a center of excellence for air traffic management (ATM). The authority described the new ATM Research Institute and the new Mitre Asia Pacific Singapore, or MAPS, facility as central to that strategy.

The ATM Research Institute, a collaboration between CAAS and Nanyang Technological University, is Singapore’s first institute devoted to ATM research and development. Under a memorandum of agreement the parties signed in 2013, CAAS will provide S$50 million ($35.6 million) over five years to fund R&D activities, with the university contributing in-kind services.

The institute has office and laboratory space at the university. It features a two-story ATC tower simulator with a 360-degree panoramic view, built through a research partnership with the German Aerospace Center; and a radar simulation laboratory. Both simulators run on integrated tower and radar simulation software developed by the Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory.

MAPS is Mitre Corporation’s first R&D center outside of the United States. The 10,000-sq-ft facility hosts Mitre-developed simulation tools, including a cockpit simulator, a wraparound tower, controller workstations and advanced traffic flow management software.

Josephine Teo, Singapore senior minister of state for finance and transportation, presided over the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by 140 aviation executives participating in the World Civil Aviation Executives Forum.