The Path to Securing a Research Position in Singapore
Background
Starting in April 2025, I will be working as an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School (National University of Singapore). In this post, I would like to summarize the process of obtaining this research position, partly as a way to reflect on my own journey. I hope this will be helpful for those who are interested in pursuing a research career abroad in the future. (Note: Since this is a fixed-term position and not a tenure-track one, some aspects may differ.)
My First Two Years in Singapore
Originally, I worked full-time as an emergency physician in Japan. During my graduate school years, I was engaged in research on weekdays, but I earned my living expenses through on-call and night shifts on weekends. Even after graduating from graduate school, I lived a life where I was involved in clinical work four days a week (plus on-call/night shifts) at an emergency medical center, while also dedicating one day a week to research. However, in October 2022, I received a research grant and moved to Singapore, beginning my life as a postdoctoral fellow and visiting researcher at Duke-NUS.
For someone like me, whose income had previously been 100% derived from clinical work, earning a living through research purposes in 2022—and meeting the criteria for a Singapore Work Pass (visa)—was a major challenge and a turning point in my career. If you are interested in the details of this process, please refer to my previous note.
Initially, I planned to return to Japan after two years, but I was gradually drawn to the new research work in Singapore, the stimulation of the research environment, the ease of living, and the educational environment for my children, and I began to think, "I want to try my best here a little longer." After consulting with my family, we started considering whether we could work and live in Singapore for longer.
About a year after arriving in Singapore, my boss asked me about my future plans. When I said, "I want to continue my research in Singapore," he gave me some advice. Specifically, he told me to produce solid research achievements and secure research funding. I would like to write about the things I have kept in mind until receiving the offer for this position.
Five Things I Have Kept in Mind
1. Demonstrating Research Capability
The first research project I was involved in after arriving in Singapore fortunately resulted in multiple papers being published in journals with an impact factor of nearly 20. (Although the impact factor was inflated at the time due to the influence of COVID-19, haha; unfortunately, it is not that high now.) Also, with these results, I was able to win multiple awards at academic conferences within Singapore. I feel that my boss highly valued these initial research results. He took these findings to various stakeholders in Singapore and advocated for me. Through these papers, I felt that he also valued the originality of my ideas and my understanding of methodology.
In addition, for my next project, I published the first epidemiological paper on heatstroke in Singapore. Fortunately, this research was picked up by news outlets and newspapers. Although this paper was only published in a small local medical journal, I was able to publish research that was conscious of its "practical impact" for Singapore. After that, I also published papers on international collaborative research between Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. I think I was able to produce notable results with this as well.
Whether or not you can produce research achievements is influenced by luck and various other factors, but I felt that being able to firmly demonstrate my research capability through these research activities was indeed an important point for securing a position in academia.
2. Securing Research Funding
Securing research funding is also important. Following advice from my supervisor, I actively worked on applying for research funding even after coming to Singapore. Due to my position as a visiting researcher, there were many cases where I could not apply on my own, so I often applied jointly with my boss, but several projects that I prepared proactively were accepted. (Research grants in Singapore accepted between 2023 and 2024)
Large-scale research grant of approximately 150 million yen (applied as a team)
Research grant in the 20 million yen class (Co-PI)
International collaborative research funding with Duke University in the US (approx. 20 million yen, Co-I)
Funding for international collaborative research workshops (approx. 5 million yen, Co-I)
Individual research grant (approx. 15 million yen, PI)
I believe that securing funding and building a stable research system was important in demonstrating my "independence" as a researcher.
3. Contribution to Education
I also made a conscious effort to contribute actively to education. In the laboratory, I conducted research in collaboration with several interns and students. The students worked hard to keep up with my guidance, even with my poor English. Fortunately, they published several original papers and won awards at academic conferences, which made me very happy. I feel that through this research support and feedback for students, I was able to demonstrate my role as an educator.
4. Contribution to Local Singapore
Furthermore, while living in Singapore, I believe it is important to contribute to the local community. I also believe it is crucial to build a network with Singaporean emergency physicians to establish a foundation for collaborative research. I have actively participated in and led projects that contribute to the improvement of Singapore's emergency medical system. I have also participated in projects involving the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Ministry of Health. Fortunately, I have had increasing opportunities to be asked for research assistance by local emergency physicians. I hope they find my experience useful for research related to emergency medicine in Singapore.
5. My Unique Strengths
Since coming to Singapore, I have realized once again that my strength lies in my ability to act as a bridge between "hardcore clinicians and hardcore researchers," based on my 10 years of clinical experience in emergency medicine in Japan. In Singapore (as in Japan), people are often clearly divided into those who specialize in research and those who specialize in clinical practice. While research departments have experts in machine learning, epidemiology, statistics, engineering, and health economics, there were not many people who could bridge the gap between them and provide a clinical perspective. As someone who knows the emergency front lines, I believe that being able to play a role like a liaison or interpreter with researchers in different fields such as epidemiology, machine learning, and public health has enhanced my value within the team.
To Those Interested in Overseas Research Positions
Looking back, I think the following five factors were important in leading to this Assistant Professor offer.
Research achievements
Securing research funding
Contribution to education and support capabilities
Expectations for contribution to local Singapore
Unique strengths and roles
For those considering a research position abroad in the future, it might be good to prepare while keeping these points in mind. (Though I don't know for sure, haha.)
However, this new research life of mine has only just begun. I said some high-sounding things, but I haven't achieved anything yet.
I hope to work hard to further establish the points above.
If I feel like it, I will write a note about the evaluation process for this Assistant Professor position. Please read it if you are interested.
<<Postscript>>
I wrote it here. Please take a look if you are interested.