Supervision
A named mentor for the project stage, with scheduled reviews at proposal, collection and drafting milestones — and honest feedback while it is still useful.
Research & Innovation
Research at the School is not an assignment to be submitted and forgotten. It is a pathway with defined stages, honest checkpoints and an obligation to be useful at the end.
The pathway
Five stages, each with a checkpoint
No stage begins until the previous one has been reviewed. This is slower at the start and considerably faster at the end.
Ask — the researchable question
Most weak studies are weak before any data is gathered, because the question was never made precise. Participants learn to move from a broad interest to a question with a defined population, variable, boundary and purpose — and to check that it has not already been answered.
Checkpoint: a written question, justified against the existing literature, with an explicit statement of what would count as an answer.
Design — the method that fits
The method follows the question, never the reverse. Participants select a design, define variables and instruments, plan sampling and recruitment, anticipate threats to validity, and settle ethical approval before anything is collected.
Checkpoint: a reviewed proposal including design, instruments, sampling plan, analysis plan and ethics statement.
Investigate — disciplined collection and analysis
Data is gathered according to the plan, and departures from the plan are recorded rather than hidden. Analysis follows the pre-stated approach, with decisions documented as they are made so the work can be audited and replicated.
Checkpoint: a clean, documented dataset and an analysis that another researcher could reproduce from the record.
Communicate — writing that can be defended
The manuscript is built as an argument: what was asked, how it was investigated, what was found, what it means and where it stops. Limitations are stated by the author before a reviewer states them for you.
Checkpoint: a complete draft reviewed by mentor and peers, with a target journal, conference or audience identified.
Translate — the finding in use
Every project is asked a final question: who should act differently because of this, and what would make that possible? Depending on the answer, the work continues as a prototype, a policy submission, a teaching resource, a further study or a venture.
Checkpoint: a translation plan naming the intended audience, the route to reach them and the next concrete step.
Integrity
Research ethics is where a project starts
Ethical review is not an administrative hurdle placed in front of interesting work. It is the discipline of taking responsibility for the people and communities a study touches.
Every supervised project at the School is expected to satisfy the framework below before data collection begins, in addition to any approval required by the participant's own institution or employer.
Informed consent
Participants understand what is being asked, why, what happens to their data, and that they may withdraw without penalty.
Confidentiality & data protection
Personal data is minimised, secured, anonymised where possible, and retained only as long as the study genuinely requires.
Safeguarding
Additional protections apply whenever research involves minors, patients or any group in a position of dependence or vulnerability.
Honest reporting
No fabrication, no falsification, no selective reporting of the results that happened to be convenient, and full disclosure of conflicts of interest.
Support
What the School provides around your project
Methodology clinic
Open sessions for participants stuck on a design decision: sampling, instrument choice, comparison groups, or how to handle a study that has drifted from its plan.
Analysis support
Guidance on choosing and running the right analysis, interpreting output correctly, and presenting results without overstating them.
Writing & publication
Structural editing, argument review, journal selection and help preparing responses to reviewers — including how to read a rejection usefully.
Peer review circle
Structured critique between participants. Reviewing another researcher's work is one of the fastest ways to improve your own.
Innovation support
For findings with practical potential: prototyping guidance, stakeholder mapping and help preparing a proposal for the people who can act on it.
Invitation
Themes we particularly welcome
The School is discipline-agnostic and will supervise sound work in any field. These cross-cutting themes are where we expect the strongest demand — and where we are actively seeking participants, mentors and partner institutions.
Education & pedagogy
Health & wellbeing
Technology, data & computing
Social & community development
Environment & sustainability
Economics, enterprise & policy
Language, culture & heritage
Science & applied engineering
Proposing a project
If you already have a question you want to pursue, say so when you register your interest. Well-formed proposals help us plan supervision capacity for the inaugural intake — and the strongest ones will shape the first round of supported projects.
“Research that never leaves the file drawer has not finished its job.”
On translation — Al-Majeed School
Bring us your question
Start the pathway
Whether you are at the idea stage or halfway through a study that has stalled, tell us where you are and we will tell you what support fits.