The Applied Researcher I
Full course description
The Applied Researcher I is the first part of a three period research project, in which student groups will work on a research problem provided and supervised by a UM researcher. Before the start of the project students are given the opportunity to designate their preference for a specific problem. Study fields include e.g. Food Innovation, Psychology, Public Health, Marketing/Health Claims,.... The problems provided challenge students to study an issue that is still not fully understood and the answer to the problem has applied implications.
In this project period the focus will lie on analyzing the problem and on coming up with a feasible research plan that sets the foundation for the data collection phase (The Applied Researcher II) and the analysis-writing up results phase (The Applied Researcher III).
Course objectives
At the end of this skills-training…
- Students have improved their ability to identify and select relevant (scientific) sources, which they can use to support their research question.
- Students have become aware of the importance of analysing a real-life problem sufficiently in order to formulate an adequate research question and hypotheses.
- Students have learned important lessons on systematic, critical, and ethical research.
- Students have learned to design and plan a realistic research project and are able to convey the importance and feasibility of the research project in a written research proposal.
- Students have improved relevant soft skills (planning, communication, team working).
Recommended reading
Students will be provided with a small number of content literature that is related to their research focus. In addition, some general literature resources are recommended. However, for the most part students are expected to search for and identify credible and relevant sources by themselves.