Certificate students have flexible options for fulfilling the project requirement. Discuss your project ideas with your Certificate Adviser. Below are some examples of how you can fulfill the project requirement. See additional project ideas at Research skills to be applied. Also, see projects of past and current Certificate students.
Examples of project options
Use your project from your degree program. If you are a graduate student, you may adapt your master’s or PhD project to meet the criteria for a Certificate project OR write a proposal of how it could be adapted to meet Certificate requirements. (In this case, the proposal would be your project.) If you select this option, your Certificate Adviser will determine whether your project will meet Certificate criteria, while your adviser for your degree program will determine whether you will meet the school/department requirements. These requirements won’t necessarily be the same.
Work with a faculty researcher. Certificate students may work with a faculty member who is conducting research or develop an independent component of a project to make it consistent with Certificate objectives and methods.
Critique a proposal or completed study that is not consistent with Implementation Science and Community Health Outcomes principles and propose a new design that would be consistent. (In this case, the proposal would be your project.)
Develop a competitive funding proposal that would qualify for submission to the Wisconsin Partnership Program’s (WPP) Community-Academic Partnership grant program. (In this case, the proposal would be your project.)
Procedure:
Read the WPP’s application guidelines for the Community-Academic Partnership Fund program <http://www.med.wisc.edu/wisconsin-partnership-program/grant-application-and-management/503> Note: You might have to arrange to get a copy if it’s not currently on WPP’s website.
Develop a research question that 1) addresses a health issue considered a priority in a real community/population, 2) reflects the involvement of members of the community/population in identifying the health issue, 3) asks about the effectiveness of an intervention or implementation of an evidence-based practice that addresses the health issue, 4) is relevant from the perspective of one or more potential funders, and 5) is in the research interest area of a UW-Madison faculty researcher.
Conduct a search of evidence-based approaches to address the health issue within similar communities/populations, e.g., similar culturally, similar health and environmental characteristics, similar socioeconomic characteristics.
Involve members of the target community in choosing from among evidence-based approaches.
Develop a funding proposal for implementing and evaluating the approach in the specific community. Involve member(s) of the community in developing or reviewing and having input to the funding proposal. Include in the proposal: your research question, rationale for focusing on the health issue, a description of input received from the community, background on the health issue and evidence, rational for your choice of an evidence-based approach, pertinent funding program(s), methods, and a budget.