https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/AM_1136The goal of this course is to prepare students for their Research Project (i.e., their MSc thesis), which starts immediately after completion of the Research Design course. At the beginning of the course, students will already know the topic of their MSc thesis, and the course will help them to write a research plan for implementing this topic. This means, the course will guide them through the different stages of developing a research plan from the literature review and specification of the research question over identifying appropriate theories and methods to setting up a time plan for the thesis. At the end of the course, students will have written their own research plan and prepared a short presentation to pitch it. The course is accompanied by an extra independent module on academic English writing. At the end of the course, · Students have gained in-depth understanding of a societal problem and the related state-of-the-art of research in a selected field of environment and resource management · Students are able to formulate a concise and novel research question so that answering it will identify solutions to the societal problems and contribute to academic knowledge · Students are able to develop a research design to answer their research question, which includes being able to choose appropriate concepts or theories, methods and material · Students can effectively plan a long-term research project. · Students can synthesize and communicate their research plan in written and oral forms at academic level.The course begins with an introductory lecture for all students, which explains the purpose of a research proposal and its key components and explains the logic and requirements of the course. This is followed by weekly parallel workshop-style tutorials. Each tutorial will cover the same content and will be organized in the same way: Tutors will provide additional input in the form of lectures and informal discussions on how to produce a research design for an MSc thesis and how to improve important soft skills. Students will moreover have room to work on their proposals during the tutorials and give each other peer feedback. Weekly homework related to the different elements of a research proposal will help students to stay on track and develop their proposals in a step-by-step approach. The complementary academic writing module will give students the opportunity to work on the structure and style of their text.Seminar/‘Werkcollege’ (s)The grades for the Research Design course consist of three elements: 1. A written Research Plan for the Research Project (70%, graded by thesis supervisor) 2. (Recorded) presentation of the Research Plan (30%, graded by the course tutor) 3. Students need to receive a "pass" grade from the Academic Writing course (graded by Academic Writing teachers). Should a student fail the course, we offer a resit for the presentation and a revised version of the research proposal as well as the Academic Writing component. We advise students that expectations of tutors and supervisors may increase given the extra time available in the course of the resit period.See Course manual on Canvas