One of the first things you notice about Singapore’s multibillion-dollar biomedical sciences initiative is that it is dominated by high-profile foreigners. Neal Copeland, formerly of the National Cancer Institute, heads the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology; Hong Kong-born Edison Liu, also formerly of the NCI, heads the Genome Institute of Singapore; Judith Swain, ex-dean of translational medicine at the University of California, San Diego, heads the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences.

And it’s the same story for the government’s four other life sciences institutes and the 40-odd private sector organizations and companies housed on Singapore’s $300-million Biopolis campus, where the cast of big pharma labs now includes the GlaxoSmithKline Centre for Research in Cognitive and Neurodegenerative Disorders, the Lilly-Singapore Centre for Drug Discovery, and the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases.

With a reputation for meticulous planning and execution, Singaporeans had proven skilled offshore partners for leading manufacturers in electronics, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. But when the government’s powerful Economic Development Board (EDB) launched its biomedical initiative in 2000, Singapore was starting virtually from scratch. With no startup tradition and little background in research beyond fine-tuning manufacturing processes—and few students pursuing higher research degrees—the government had to look outside for scientists to kick-start everything while, inside, it launched a massive scholarship program to encourage students to pursue science careers.

Lushly verdant and neat as a pin, Singapore does not make a natural environment for discovery. The city-state of 4.5 million has been ruled by the People’s Action Party since independence in 1965 and over the years the government has banned homosexuals, publications it doesn’t like, Jehovah’s Witnesses, street performers, even jukeboxes and chewing gum. Singapore introduced downtown congestion charges decades before anyone, and thrives on planning and predictability—not to mention careful observance of boundaries. “Defamation suits in Singapore are a common tactic for controlling speech, especially that related to Singapore’s government and politics,” warned an OpenNet Initiative study two years ago.

The biomedical initiative has also drawn its critics, including a member of Singapore’s ruling family, over costs and priorities. Outsiders have wondered if the whole project could unravel because of overdependence on foreign talent. “Expansion and retention of local and imported research talent will likely be the key determinant of the initiative’s sustainability,” a U.S. Department of Commerce white paper said in 2002. In 2006, World Bank economists Shahid Yusuf and Kaoru Nabeshima put the issue in sharper focus in their book Post Industrial East Asian Cities. “Star scientists are a footloose group,” they cautioned, “and the departure of one can trigger the break-up of a team and the emigration of other key members.”

Among those answering that charge was Sir David Lane, himself a star import from the United Kingdom, and executive director of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at the time. Lane said scientists naturally go where the opportunity is, and he proceeded to cite the case of an American couple who had moved their cancer research to Singapore. “Neal and Nancy Copeland sold their house, quit their jobs, and committed to Singapore in a big way,” he told Reuters in November 2006.

But then there seemed to be something to this footloose theory. Six months after Lane spoke out, it was announced that he and his wife Birgitte, a skin cell expert and executive director of Singapore’s Centre for Molecular Medicine, were accepting appointments back in Scotland. The University of Dundee promised to build dedicated labs for the Lanes, and David Lane was also to become chief scientist at four institutes within Cancer Research UK.

These jobs supposedly would still leave time for Singapore. “Sir David will be spending half his time on his work in Singapore and will be physically in Singapore for at least three months in a year,” insisted Lim Chuan Poh, chairman of A*STAR, Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research, which oversees the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and six other government institutes. (With 500 scientists, the institute remains the country’s largest research organization.)