RESEARCH GRANT PROJECTS

This research project is designed to comprehensively assess how Singapore residents perceive temperature and heat, with a special focus on aligning these perceptions with objective measurements and established thermal indices. The project has two specific aims: first, to compare respondents’ perceived air temperature and thermal conditions with measured air temperature and calculated thermal indices, and second, to analyse how factors such as demographics, urban morphology, and climatic conditions shape these perceptions. Through evaluating the suitability of thermal indices in Singapore and identifying the most appropriate thermal index for our unique context, this research will improve the communication of heat risk to the public, thereby increasing heat risk awareness and reducing heat-related illnesses and mortality.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a United Nations body tasked with assessing climate science and informing policymakers about climate change, its impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Coordinating Lead Authors (CLAs) are critical actors in the preparation of the IPCC reports as the coordinate inputs from Lead Authors. Their role is enabled by Chapter Scientists including managing references, enhancing coordination, and fostering inclusivity within diverse teams. However, the IPCC does not formally recognize or fund CS roles, leaving their provision dependent on CLA’s access to external funding. This disproportionately affects the equitable participation of Global South (GS) CLAs who often lack access to external funds. This project supported through the CLARE - CLimate Adaptation & REsilience programme, will address these challenges by recruiting and strengthening the capacity of Chapter Scientists to support Global South CLAs involved in the preparation of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities (SRCities). It aims to ensure effective participation and contributions of CLAs from the global South and enhance the inclusion of knowledge, evidence and perspectives from the Global South. The project will support Chapter Scientists in their role through training, peer networking opportunities, and equipping Chapter Scientists as knowledge brokers to support CLAs in disseminating IPCC findings effectively. This initiative bridges gaps in equity and representation, fostering a more balanced and inclusive assessment process that addresses priorities relevant to stakeholders in the Global South.

This exploratory study investigates the impact of Singapore Management University’s (SMU) interdisciplinary Core Curriculum in developing lifelong learners. It focuses on three interrelated questions: (1) How do educators in SMU’s Core Curriculum approach interdisciplinarity, and (if relevant) lifelong learning, in their curricular design, course delivery and assessment?; (2) To what extent does SMU’s interdisciplinary Core Curriculum develop lifelong learning among its graduates?; and (3) What are the best practices in interdisciplinary education that develop lifelong learning that can be shared with Singapore IHLs?

Singapore faces significant climate vulnerabilities, including sea level rise, extreme weather, and urban heat, yet translating climate projections into actionable risk information remains a challenge due to the complexity and uncertainty of climate risks. This project proposes the development of a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model to address this gap. By integrating diverse data sources—such as historical and projected climate data, expert input, and qualitative research—the BBN model will simulate various climate scenarios, including different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and High-Impact Low-Likelihood (HILL) events. The resulting quantitative risk scores aim to support stakeholders in understanding and addressing future climate impacts through informed mitigation and adaptation strategies.

This project will explore how two rapidly evolving and important topics—artificial intelligence (AI) and urban climate governance—are interacting in cities across South and Southeast Asia. The project will explore the complexities of autonomizing urban governance at the intersection of AI and climate change and will focus on the challenges that emerge when integrating AI into environmental governance in cities. The empirical focus will be on Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Bangalore.

This project aims to develop the first high-resolution regional weather reanalysis dataset for Singapore and Southeast Asia, covering the period from 1990s to 2025. By integrating sparse historical ground and satellite observations with next-generation numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and advanced data assimilation techniques, the project will produce a comprehensive and accurate historical weather record tailored for tropical climates.

Key features of the project include:
• Generation of a high-resolution (at least 4km) reanalysis dataset using cutting-edge NWP systems and ensemble-based data assimilation methods.
• Compilation and quality control of a regional historical observation datastore, encompassing both international and local data sources.
• Comprehensive scientific analysis of both observation and reanalysis datasets to validate accuracy, identify trends, and provide insights into regional climate dynamics.
• Development of a Regional Reanalysis Product Catalogue to support planning & operational decision-making in aviation, maritime, energy, and urban planning sectors.

CTP will help to better understand exactly how the climate is changing; to identify and develop ways to contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts; to better assess the environmental, social, and economic risks from climate change; and to design effective solutions to control, reduce and adapt to these risks.

This project will position Singapore as a regional leader in climate and weather science, enabling AI-powered forecasting and evidenced-based policymaking through robust historical climate data. It will also contribute to international collaboration and technological advancements in regional reanalysis.

Nepal’s infrastructure and water management practices have long relied on both natural and manmade storage systems, from Himalayan glacial runoff and hydropower dams to local pokharis and household tanks. However, climate change is disrupting glacial melt patterns and challenging the reliability of these systems, prompting new state-led proposals for large-scale reservoirs and increasing domestic reliance on groundwater storage. In parallel, storage is expanding beyond water to include battery systems for solar energy and carbon storage through forest-based REDD+ initiatives, reshaping resource flows and development strategies. This project proposes an ethnographic study of how these evolving storage practices are reconfiguring material, economic, and social life across Nepal.

Climate change is an increasingly urgent and existential crisis that threatens all sectors of society in all countries of Southeast Asia (SEA). The Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) aims to develop, inspire and accelerate knowledge-based solutions and educate future leaders to establish the stable climate and environment necessary for resilient, just, and sustainable Southeast Asian societies.

CTP will generate knowledge and innovation across disciplines including climate and Earth science, ecology, materials science, artificial intelligence, humanities, social sciences and the arts, finance, health, and engineering. It will also translate state-of-the-art scientific results into real world solutions for Singapore, and it will transfer these solutions to SEA and beyond.

CTP will help to better understand exactly how the climate is changing; to identify and develop ways to contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts; to better assess the environmental, social, and economic risks from climate change; and to design effective solutions to control, reduce and adapt to these risks.

To achieve these multiple objectives, CTP will integrate a matrix of six strategic clusters of research and three cross-cutting themes. The cross-cutting theme on sustainable societies consists of a series of projects that leverage communication technologies and interventions, public opinion and psychology, and the arts, in collaboration with the six clusters and two other cross-cutting themes, to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Climate change is an increasingly urgent and existential crisis that threatens all sectors of society in all countries of Southeast Asia (SEA). The Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) aims to develop, inspire and accelerate knowledge-based solutions and educate future leaders to establish the stable climate and environment necessary for resilient, just, and sustainable Southeast Asian societies.

CTP will generate knowledge and innovation across disciplines including climate and Earth science, ecology, materials science, artificial intelligence, humanities, social sciences and the arts, finance, health, and engineering. It will also translate state-of-the-art scientific results into real world solutions for Singapore, and it will transfer these solutions to SEA and beyond.

CTP will help to better understand exactly how the climate is changing; to identify and develop ways to contribute to global climate change mitigation efforts; to better assess the environmental, social, and economic risks from climate change; and to design effective solutions to control, reduce and adapt to these risks.

To achieve these multiple objectives, CTP will integrate a matrix of six strategic clusters of research and three cross-cutting themes. The cross-cutting theme on sustainable societies consists of a series of projects that leverage communication technologies and interventions, public opinion and psychology, and the arts, in collaboration with the six clusters and two other cross-cutting themes, to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

This project will create new knowledge derived from historical sources to benefit the academic and scientific communities of Singapore in understanding long-term regional rainfall variability. This benefits Singapore by revealing long-term trends and extremes, critical to water security and climate-change preparedness now, and in the future. This benefits society by helping scholars and government in managing water-related risk.

Singapore's latest high-resolution climate change study, V3, led by the National Environmental Agency (NEA) / Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) can simulate future impacts of climate change under different scenarios. Climate change effects are complex and often uncertain in when they are likely to occur and how impactful they will be. Furthermore, it is challenging to engage with climate projections as future climate change impacts seem far removed from our immediate experiences.

Through this project supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and NEA under the Climate Impact Science Research (CISR) funding initiative, the research team will map climate projections impacting Singapore into a risk assessment framework that will identify potential policy solutions to reduce future climate impacts and risks. Immersive virtual reality narratives will be constructed to operationalise the risk assessment framework and communicate the future impacts of climate change, along with the solution space, to policymakers and other stakeholders. Taken together, this will make the impacts of climate change directly relevant and provide a platform to translate climate science into effective policy.

The need for interdisciplinary research in energy studies is widely acknowledged, but practical challenges hinder collaboration. Issues include varying publication norms, academic promotion favouring single-discipline work, and perceptions of lower rigour in interdisciplinary research. This project aims to systematically understand these challenges using advanced statistical techniques. Three key questions will be explored: (1) How do collaborators from different disciplines reconcile differences in authorship conventions when publishing interdisciplinary work in energy studies?; (2) Does interdisciplinary collaboration negatively impact a scholar's standing in their home discipline?; (3) Are research articles published in interdisciplinary energy studies journals perceived to be less rigorous than articles published in single-discipline journals? The study seeks to provide evidence-based insights and contribute to facilitating interdisciplinary research in energy studies and beyond.

This project seeks to understand the role of “education infrastructures” in shaping the terms and extent of belonging amongst Indian migrants in Singapore and explores the development and potential fracturing of an idea of “global Indianness” as it is taught, experienced, and lived in Singapore and Toronto.

Cities globally are increasingly adopting nature-based infrastructure to address urban environmental challenges. These green spaces, a central aspect of Singapore's Green Plan 2030, serve ecological functions like managing stormwater, improving air quality, and storing carbon. However, the proposed research delves into the overlooked impact of these natural infrastructures on non-domesticated animals, exploring their role in shaping urban environments and socio-ecological relations. By centering on these creatures, the study aims to provide insights into how green infrastructure projects impact city life, aiding planners in fostering public support and engagement for sustainable urban development and climate change mitigation.

This project is an interdisciplinary and multi-institute work package, led by SMU, making use of the Digital Urban Climate Twin (DUCT) results from the first Cooling Singapore 2.0 work package to examine the urban climate risks and impacts from environmental and physiological perspectives. The objectives include (a.) investigating where and who in Singapore will be affected by excessive heat from urbanisation and climate change, and (b.) examining if existing measures, such as vegetation cover, will have reduced effectiveness in minimising heat exposure under a warming climate. Results from this project will aid in assessment and future policy development towards urban warmth solutions in Singapore.

This project will explore the translational politics of smart city knowledge transfer, and how these politics manifest in urban environments throughout Southeast Asia. We define “translational politics” as the (mis)alignments, tensions and opportunities for exploitation that emerge when different scales of influence converge and materialise within a given urban context. We will explore the emergence of “technocratic regionalism” as a strategy through which power and inequality are (re)produced at both the macro (or global, regional and national) and micro (or local) scales.

Spanning approximately two hundred years of Singapore’s modern history, this study will draw upon a wide array of textual and non-textual historical and contemporary sources to document gardening in Singapore from the 19th century to the present day. It will identify the ways in which historical gardening practices in Singapore have been continued, reinforced, and transformed into the contemporary period through building a body of new research and knowledge. In doing so, our proposed study will reflect an increased focus on ICH as part of the Our SG Heritage Plan and catalyse the writing of a new environmental history of Singapore, one which places ordinary people and practices in the foreground.

This research project examines how the policies of ASEAN’s Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) shaped its member states’ national identity-building cultural policies in the late Cold War period (1980s-early 1990s) and the ways that non-state culture-makers produced their own visions of national or transnational affiliations that may have complemented, diverged from, or interrogated those of their political elites, including those who served in ASEAN COCI.

This research project examines Anglophone speculative fiction written by ASEAN authors in the late Cold War period (1970s-1980s) and explores particularly how writers of Anglophone speculative fiction, as culture-makers in Southeast Asia, perceived, affirmed, or challenged the efforts of ASEAN elites to work on local and regional identity-building in the late Cold War.

This five-year longitudinal study with the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) aims to quantify and qualify the economic and environmental impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework for e-waste in Singapore. The findings will aid MSE in assessing the effectiveness of the e-waste EPR and refining it for future phases.

This project concerns the digital transformation of Asian American evangelicalism. We are interested in Asian American evangelical online publications as cyberspace engagements that have transformed how Asian American evangelical communities narrate what they mean by ‘Asia,’ ‘Asians,’ and ‘Asian America.’ Our use of the term ‘Asian American evangelical’ comes from the sociology of religion, where Asian American evangelical communities tell stories about themselves through the phenomenon of the ‘silent exodus’ in the 1990s, during which English-speaking second generation groups left Korean and Chinese Protestant churches in the United States to plant new congregations and start university campus ministries.

This project examines the dynamic relationship between dance and politics from Sihanouk’s rise to power in 1953 until the demise of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 by probing into the role of dance in articulating Cambodia’s Cold War diplomacy and interrogating how the Khmer dance incorporated Cambodia’s changing political interests, ideology and expressions. It contributes to the scholarship on dance and politics by shifting the lens to Southeast Asia and its rich dance traditions and practices.

Cooling Singapore 2.0 is a multi-disciplinary research project that aims to build a Digital Urban Climate Twin (DUCT) in Singapore through the integration of relevant computational models (environmental, land surface, industrial, traffic, building energy), as well as regional- and micro-scale climate models to explore the heat effects of buildings, transport, and industry. DUCT users are exposed to a sophisticated graphical user interface designed to conduct simulation experiments and explore hypothetical scenarios. In turn, the insights gained will facilitate urban planners and policymakers in developing solutions to address the urban heat challenge in Singapore.

This project explores how ASEAN culture-makers—specifically artists and writers—from the 1970s to the early 1990s produced works that imagined, portrayed and shaped the post-Vietnam War era in their own country’s and the region’s foreign relations with the wider world.

This project focuses on how secular civil society activists in post-Maidan Ukraine and post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong appropriate ‘Catholic talk’ for what we call their ‘social dreaming,’ their aspirations for a democratic civil society marked by rule of law and respect for human rights.

This research project aims to find out how thermal environment impacts the effectiveness of environmental/educational message retention by guests visiting current parks in the Mandai district – Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Safari, and will allow the research team to formulate suggestions that will help inform how and where educational messages can be deployed for maximum effectiveness within the new features of the Mandai project.

Singapore has become warmer in recent years as a result of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Reducing this effect, and so improving the thermal comfort for the city’s residents, will require the combined effort of many stakeholders from government, academia, and the private sector. The UHI has become a matter of increasing concern because of its many, mainly negative, effects upon the quality of urban life. In tropical Singapore, increased temperatures due to UHI negatively affect people’s liveability and outdoor thermal comfort (OTC). Many of these problems are likely to become more severe in the future, partly because of urban growth but also exacerbated by the impacts of climate change upon cities. Tackling such a complex undertaking necessitates a multidisciplinary and all-of-government approach.

The project seeks to understand the extent to which religion can enable or disable the integration of migrant and nonmigrant communities from different religious traditions. Through such an understanding, the project hopes to identify the extent to which new religious pluralisms exist in Singapore, how they manifest across different religious groups, and the strategies deployed by different religious groups to manage them.

This multi-disciplinary project draws from the principle that current studies of extreme climatic events have not been well-integrated or evenly balanced across different fields and that a close lens into past events can prove vital for understanding the ramifications of severe climate events today and in the future.

This research looks into the specific case of Cambodia from Sihanouk’s rise to power in 1953 up until the demise of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, a period where Khmer dance performances became an integral part of Cambodia’s diplomatic affairs.