Research Associate/ Research Fellow (quantitative/mixed-methods)

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE; Singapore; On-site; SGD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in Singapore is looking for a Research Associate/Research Fellow to join an interdisciplinary team. This role involves designing measurement tools, conducting socio-spatial analysis, and engaging stakeholders to enhance community engagement and wellbeing. Candidates should have at least 3 years of research experience, proficiency in various statistical tools, and a Master’s or PhD in a related field.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years of research experience in community, health, or built-environment project.
• Interdisciplinary backgrounds and applied research experience in real-world settings are highly valued.
• Fluency in English required.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead the development of measurement frameworks and tools.
• Conduct literature reviews and qualitative research.
• Coordinate a multi-agency advisory group.
• Manage IRB submissions, ethics documentation, and data governance.

Skills

Research experience in community health

Proficiency in R, Stata, SPSS, or Python

Quantitative and measurement skills

Excellent writing and facilitation skills

Stakeholder engagement skills

Education

Master’s or PhD in relevant field

Job description

Interested applicants are invited to apply directly at the NUS Career Portal. Your application will be processed only if you apply via the NUS Career Portal. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Job Description

Research Associate/ Research Fellow (quantitative/mixed-methods)

Type: 1-year contract (renewable), full-time, Singapore-based

About the Role

Join an interdisciplinary research team examining how co-located community hubs—such as Our Tampines Hub, Heartbeat @ Bedok, One Punggol, and Wisma Geylang Serai—shape social capital, intergenerational connection, and community capacity in Singapore. Designed to optimise land use and bring together health, social, cultural, and daily-life services within a single space, these hubs are emerging as vital platforms for community engagement and wellbeing in dense urban settings. They offer rich testbeds for community-based research, participatory innovation, and real-world evaluation.

This role provides a unique opportunity to work across public health, behavioural science, urban design, and community arts, advancing actionable knowledge on how the built environment and community programming can foster inclusion, belonging, and social resilience in cities.

What You’ll Do

1. Measurement Research
   • Design and lead the development of measurement frameworks and tools to assess constructs such as social capital, community capacity, trust, and place-based engagement.
   • Conduct literature reviews, qualitative research (e.g., interviews, focus groups), and secondary data analysis, as well as review and adapt existing survey instruments, to create measurement scales/indexes.
   • Facilitate Delphi panels and expert consultations to validate item relevance, wording, and weighting.
   • Pilot, revise, and finalize tools for use in both academic research and practitioner settings.
   • Perform psychometric testing to establish reliability and validity of the developed instruments.
2. Socio-Spatial Analysis and User Profiling
   • Design and integrate survey and observational data across multiple research streams to generate spatially informed insight for co-located community hubs.
   • Collaborate with urban design and built-environment experts to conduct socio-spatial analyses and develop digital tools for mapping and studying public life in community spaces.
   • Integrate GIS, accessibility, and land-use data with user and programming outcomes to analyse how the design and spatial layout of community hubs influence engagement and inclusion, and to develop a typology of community hubs.
3. Stakeholder Engagement and Translation
   • Coordinate a multi-agency advisory group involving academics, government, and industry partners.
   • Translate findings into toolkits, templates, referral workflows, and training modules for practitioners.
   • Prepare and present policy briefs, reports, and visual summaries for government and community audiences.
4. Project Management and Ethics
   • Manage IRB submissions, ethics documentation, and data governance processes.
   • Ensure data integrity, documentation, and reproducibility across research partners.
   • Track project milestones, reporting, and deliverables under the Cities of Tomorrow (CoT) R&D Programme.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of research experience in community, health, or built-environment project. Interdisciplinary backgrounds and applied research experience in real-world settings are highly valued.
• Proficiency in R, Stata, SPSS, or Python with skills in quantitative and measurement skills (survey design, psychometrics, regression, multilevel modelling, factor analysis).
• Excellent writing, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement skills; comfortable presenting to practice audiences.
• Fluency in English as the candidate will need to coordinate a multi-agency advisory group involving academics, government, and industry partners.

Qualifications

• Master’s/PhD in Public Health, Urban Planning, Human Geography, Psychology, Data Science, or related disciplines.