Implementation Research for Social Services Mentoring Programme (August 2023)
Registration
Interested applicants can register for the programme via NUS Online Application Portal.
Registration has closed.
Kindly note that in addition to registering through the NUS Online Application Portal, interested applicants must submit a brief research proposal at this link.
About
This 13-week mentoring programme on implementation research offers social service professionals an opportunity to complete a small-scale research project to study the implementation of a programme, a policy or an intervention.
Implementation research studies any aspect of implementation, for example, the factors affecting implementation, the processes of implementation, and the outcomes of implementation, including how to disseminate and scale up a programme, a policy or an intervention. The intent of the research seeks to understand what, why, and how programmes, policies or interventions work in real world settings and to work towards improving them.
Participants in this programme will be supported by training workshops, peer group discussions and regular feedback from experienced researcher-mentors. Throughout the programme, social service professionals will be guided from the conceptualisation of the research study to data collection, data-analysis and presentation of their research findings for their implementation research project.
While the workshops and mentors may provide support on specific research methods or skills, these would tailor towards the needs and requirements of the research projects proposed. The programme strives to provide a holistic guidance and support on the different stages of research for each proposed research project.
At the end of the programme, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:
• Conceptualise and complete a small-scale research project to study the design and implementation of a programme, a policy or an intervention independently
• Apply theories and concepts from the implementation research literature to the study
• Present and apply research findings at work
Programme Structure
The research mentoring programme will be conducted over 13 weeks. There will be 2 full-day workshops, 6 mentoring sessions, and 1 end-of-programme graduation presentation.
• Workshop 1: 3 August 2023, 9:00AM – 6:00PM
• Workshop 2: 4 August 2023, 9:00AM – 6:00PM
• 6 mentoring sessions: to be arranged with mentors
• Graduation presentation (for participants): 3 November 2023
For each mentoring session, participants will be organised in small groups of 3-4 members each and they will arrange with their mentors on suitable times to meet. Each mentoring session will last about 2 hours at timings agreed by the group.
Programme Mentor and Trainer
Dr Xu Jianbin is a Research Fellow at the Social Service Research Centre (SSR), NUS. He holds a PhD in Social Work from NUS. His research interests include exploring the role of spirituality in ageing and examining the application of mindfulness, narrative therapy, and existential therapy in the social work context. He enjoys mining the nuggets of meaning and insight from the bonanzas of qualitative data.
Programme Trainers
Dr Robyn Tan is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, LKYSPP, NUS. Her research interests include studying the implementation of programmes, policies and interventions in real world policy and service settings. She has a keen interest in theory-driven evaluations, specifically, applying realist research to understand what works, for whom, under what conditions, and why. Robyn is an adjunct faculty with the Geriatric Education and Research Institute (GERI) where she is involved in implementation research of healthcare interventions, to facilitate their translation into practice.
Dr Yeo Geck Hong is a Research Fellow at the Social Service Research Centre (SSR), NUS. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research program centers on the role of social contexts in adolescents’ development of psychological well-being. Informed by a contextually-rooted developmental model, her research emphasizes the role of contextual factors and the mechanism of change in psychological adjustment.
Programme Fee
This programme is SSG-approved. Participants who are Singaporeans or Singaporean Permanent Residents will be eligible for subsidies of 70% of the programme fees, excluding GST. Singaporean participants who are aged 40 years old and above will be eligible for higher subsidies of up to 90% of programme fees. Participants are required to attend at least 75% of the programme and obtain a pass grade for the required assignments.
Programme Fee Breakdown
