Winter Research Projects
Team up with some of the University's leading academics and researchers to participate in research-related activities for a selected project. You'll have the opportunity to progress and apply your degree-specific knowledge, whilst developing valuable research and professional capabilities.
Applications for the 2026 Winter Research Projects are open from 23 March - 12 April 2026.
Further information and how to apply
Projects
Women for Just Sustainability Transition in Tourism: An Intersectional Perspective from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | Duration of the Project: Total of 4 weeks between 29 June – 24 July 2026 Task 1: Identify 20-30 women-operated tourism SMEs' websites in Australia. Week 1: Monday 29th June – Friday 3rd July 2026 (5days × 7 hours =35hours) Task 2: Analyse the content of these websites to identify sustainability transition plans, policies, and statements, as well as any themes related to social identity. Week 2: Monday 6th July – Friday 10th July 2026 (5days × 7 hours =35hours) Task 3: Based on the themes, identify and summarise relevant literature regarding why these themes reflect the just sustainability transition of women-operated SMEs. Week 3: Monday 13th July – Friday 17th July 2026 (5days × 7 hours =35 hours) |
| Description | 1.0 Background The experiences of women involved in a just transition are unique due to the intersection of their multiple identities, such as gender, sexuality, owner-manager, and mother-workers. These identities significantly influence their approaches to transitioning and the challenges they encounter. However, discussions about the barriers to climate mitigation actions faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often neglect these social identities (see Gössling & Reinhold, 2025). Gender scholars agree that every phenomenon has a gender dimension (Acker, 1990; Eger, Munar, & Hsu, 2022). Moreover, the increasing demand to incorporate social justice and equity into tourism transition toward sustainability is a central argument among just transition scholars (e.g., Rastegar, 2022; Rastegar & Ruhanen, 2023; Tops & Lamers, 2024). This focus is essential to avoid climate policies and actions that maintain the dominance of privileged groups. Within the just transition discourse, there have been calls to shift the focus from "if" a transition will occur to "how" it will happen (Rastegar & Ruhanen, 2023, p. 1), as well as who stands to gain or lose, how, and why (Tops & Lamers, 2024, p. 240). While addressing these questions in depth enhances research innovation on just sustainability transitions, it necessitates that such inquiry shifts from a disembodied "who" to a socially recognised understanding of "who," "how," and "why," allowing for a more nuanced perspective on the various intersectional identities involved.
1.2 Context and Methodology
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| Expected outcomes and deliverables | By the end of this project, students will gain three important skills:
To gain these skills, the student must complete the three main tasks of this project listed above and is expected to deliver an Excel sheet of extracted review and content analysis data of women-operated SMEs in tourism and hospitality. |
| Suitable for | This project is open to students with a background in Tourism, Hospitality, and Events, or Business-related programmes, at 4th-year undergraduate or Master's level (1st or 2nd Year). Students interested in literature review, qualitative research, and content analysis are encouraged to apply. |
| Primary supervisor | Dr Elizabeth Agyeiwaah |
| Co-supervisor | Dr. Zara Zarezadeh, Department of Tourism and Marketing, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia |
| Further information | Dr Elizabeth Agyeiwaah Note: This project is currently targeting the Journal of Sustainable Tourism (ABDC-A*), with an abstract submitted for a call for papers in collaboration with Dr. Zara Zarezadeh from the Department of Tourism and Marketing, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia |
Emerging Technologies and Business Transformation in Queensland
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | 36 hours per week between 29 June – 24 July 2026 The project can be conducted on-site, remotely or through a hybrid arrangement. |
| Description | Emerging technologies such as advanced manufacturing, data-intensive technologies, energy systems, and space technologies are reshaping how organisations operate, compete, and create value. For regions such as Queensland, understanding the business implications of these technologies is particularly important, as organisations face distinct challenges related to scale, capability development, infrastructure, and regulatory environments. This project investigates how organisations in Queensland engage with emerging technologies and how business environments enable or constrain their effective use. Using desk-based research, the project will synthesise insights from policy documents, industry reports, and academic research to identify key organisational challenges, enabling conditions, and open questions relevant to business leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. The project aims to produce a clear, evidence-based overview of how emerging technologies are influencing organisational strategies and opportunities in the Queensland context. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | Students participating in this project will:
As part of the project, students will be expected to:
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| Suitable for | This project is open to students from business, management, information systems, or related disciplines. Applicants should demonstrate:
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| Primary supervisor | Associate Professor Frederik von Briel |
| Further information | All applications will be reviewed jointly after the deadline. |
Stress-Testing a Generative AI Behavioural Research Protocol
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | 36 hours per week between 29 June – 24 July 2026 The project can be conducted on-site, remotely or through a hybrid arrangement. |
| Description | This project focuses on the technical development of a research study where participants interact with a Generative AI programmed to act as a specific character. In this study, the AI acts as a "gatekeeper" that only agrees to a user's request if they can provide an answer that is both creative and practical. Because AI models like ChatGPT are naturally designed to be helpful, we use a custom "system prompt" to override their default behaviour and force them to stay in character. As a Winter Research scholar, you will take our research design and integrate it into a robust experimental protocol, ensuring every participant has a consistent experience. Your job is to build the technical structure and "stress-test" the entire setup to find loopholes before we launch to participants on Prolific. During the first week, you will focus almost exclusively on conversation consistency and tool validation. You will "red-team" the system prompt to identify "persona drift" or "helpfulness leaks" where the AI breaks character or volunteers solutions. A major part of this week is determining if ChatGPT can reliably maintain these constraints or if we need to consider alternative tools to ensure experimental rigor. In the second week, once the AI behaviour is stabilized, you will move into infrastructure setup. This involves building the survey flow in Qualtrics, including informed consent and psychometric screeners, and establishing the technical "handshake" with Prolific for anonymous ID tracking. The third week shifts toward refining the participant experience and instructions. You will run small pilot sessions with a local cohort to identify friction points, specifically refining the "copy-paste" workflow to minimize user error when initializing the AI persona. By analysing these pilot transcripts, you will determine if participants found unintended workarounds and adjust the instructions accordingly. Your final week will involve end-to-end technical validation, ensuring Prolific IDs are correctly "stamped" on transcripts and that the Qualtrics logic accurately verifies the authenticity of the links participants submit. You will conclude by producing a technical audit report and launching the pilot study. This role is best suited for students in Business Information Systems, Computer Science, or Psychology who enjoy troubleshooting digital systems and testing the limits of AI behaviour. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | By the end of this project, you will have a clear understanding of how to move a research project from a conceptual stage to a rigorous, technically sound protocol that is ready for large-scale deployment. You will develop a specialized skillset in the intersection of behavioral science and AI, specifically in mastering how to "harden" AI personas to ensure they stay in character for every participant. You will also learn the technical procedures required to manage anonymous data flows across multiple platforms like Prolific and Qualtrics. The project culminates in the following deliverables:
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| Suitable for | We are looking for a student who is autonomous, resourceful, and enjoys creative problem-solving. This role is less about being a "coder" and more about having a "hacker" mindset—someone who is naturally curious, tech-savvy, and capable of working through technical friction points independently. While you’ll be using tools like Qualtrics and Prolific, we don’t expect you to have prior experience with them as long as you are comfortable learning new platforms on the fly. Because this project sits at the intersection of human behaviour and technology, it is well-suited for students from a variety of backgrounds, including Business Information Systems, UX Design/HCI, Psychology, or the Social Sciences. What matters most is a genuine interest in research. You should be able to demonstrate this through your current or completed bachelor’s or master’s thesis, or a clear plan to pursue a PhD in the future. We prefer applicants who have some prior research experience and/or who feel comfortable taking an abstract idea and refining it into a functional, robust experiment. |
| Primary supervisor | Maylis Saigot, UQBS, BIS Discipline |
| Further information | Please contact the primary supervisor prior to applying. |
Neurodiversity as a Micro-Foundational Dimension of the Multinational Enterprise: A Review and Research Agenda
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | Program Duration: 29 June - 24 July 2026 (4 weeks) |
| Description | This research responds to a Call for Papers printed by the premier journal in International Business, Journal of International Business Studies (ABDC-A*; FT50) titled “Micro-foundation of International Business: Integrating Insights from Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior”. Research Question driving the Review: Research Review Abstract: |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | By participating in this project, the student will:
Deliverables include:
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| Suitable for | This project is suitable for:
Strong reading, writing, and critical thinking skills are essential. Prior coursework or experience in qualitative research or literature reviews is desirable but not required. |
| Primary supervisor | Associate Professor Miriam Moeller |
| Further information | For questions about the project or to discuss your suitability before applying, please email m.moeller@uq.edu.au. |
Future of marketing initiative: Exploring the current landscape of postgraduate marketing education and its alignment with industry needs
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | The Winter Research Scholar will be engaged for 4 weeks only (29 June - 24 July 2026). The project tasks can be completed remotely; however, one or two initial meetings in Week 1 will be held in the supervisor’s office. Week 1 (29 June — 03 July): Scholar engagement for 7 hrs/day = 35 hours Key Tasks (4-5 hours of supervisor engagement in Week 1)
Week 2 & Week 3 (6 July — 17 July): Scholar engagement for 7 hours per day (35 hours per week)
Week 4 (20 July — 24 July): Scholar engagement for 7 hrs/day = 35 hours
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| Description | The recent technological developments and rapidly changing business environment have substantially impacted marketing practice. Accordingly, industry expects graduates to possess knowledge of contemporary topics (e.g., AI, digital marketing, analytics) for marketing roles (Grewal et al., 2025). However, gaps remain between industry skills requirements and classroom learning, as few roles allow marketing graduates to apply the knowledge and skills they acquire in business schools (Taylor, 2003), resulting in dissatisfaction with fresh marketing graduates’ skill sets (Bacon, 2017). This is critical given that the primary purpose of marketing programs is to prepare students to perform effectively in organisations (Schlee & Harich, 2010). Therefore, marketing academics feel increasing pressure to prepare students beyond fundamental marketing skills (Grewal et al., 2025). Kumar (2018) suggests that the marketing discipline is undergoing a transformation, with marketing educators playing a major role in re-evaluating the curriculum and adapting to the changing marketplace. This re-evaluation requires a thorough examination of current marketing programs, majors, and courses offered at leading institutions worldwide. Such an examination will help identify recent developments and the skills focus at the program, major, and course levels. The transformation also requires continuously assessing industry skills requirements for marketing graduates (Ang et al., 2014). Finally, comparing marketing curricula with industry skill requirements will allow the identification of necessary updates to existing marketing programs, majors, and courses, as well as the need to introduce new programs, majors, or curses. This transformation is important for universities, industry, and students. AACSB requires business schools to monitor ongoing developments in business and organisations and to continuously adapt and improve curricula to remain relevant to the ever-changing business environment (Schlee & Harich, 2010). In addition, bridging the gaps between industry skills requirements and classroom learning will enhance organisational performance and graduates’ employability. Therefore, the Future of Marketing Initiative (FMI) project explores the structure and focus of postgraduate (coursework) marketing education offered by universities, with particular attention to how well it aligns with industry needs. Specifically, the FMI project aims to answer the following research questions:
To effectively complete this project, we have divided our project into the following phases: We have fully planned Phase I and are currently designing Phase II. The Winter Research Scholar will primarily contribute to Phase I (research questions 1-4), which constitutes a major component of the FMI project. This phase involves systematically reviewing the websites of the top 50 QS-ranked universities to capture detailed information on their marketing programs, majors, courses, and associated skills focus. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | Learning outcomes At the conclusion of the Winter Research Program, you will develop:
Deliverables The winter scholar is expected to submit a report using a provided template. In addition, the scholar will also submit the original data/information that they will use for analysis. |
| Suitable for | This project is open to applications from students who:
While not essential, preference will be given to students with a major or Field of Study in marketing/advertising. Knowledge of website scraping would be an advantage. |
| Primary supervisor | Dr Muhammad Rashid Saeed |
| Further information | Dr Muhammad Rashid Saeed |
AI literacy in organizations
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | Hours of engagement: 30 hrs per week from 29 June - 24 July 2026 This project will be offered in a flexible format, with both remote participation and face-to-face on-campus meetings as needed. |
| Description | This project focuses on AI literacy in organisations, specifically how people develop the skills and judgement needed to integrate AI effectively and responsibly into everyday workflows. It will examine existing research on AI literacy, and capability development to better understand how organisations can support the responsible use of AI. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | Students working on this project will learn how to conduct a systematic literature review, including defining research questions, developing search strategies, applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, screening and selecting studies, extracting and coding data, synthesising key themes, and identifying research gaps to build a strong foundation for future empirical research. Students can gain skills in conducting a literature review and have an opportunity to generate publications from their research. Students are required to produce a report or an oral presentation at the end of their project. |
| Suitable for | This project is open to honours and master's students with a background in Information Systems and/or Business studies. |
| Primary supervisor | Dr. Reihaneh Bidar |
| Further information | For further information, please contact: r.bidar@uq.edu.au |
Closing the Loop on First Mile Last Mile Transport: What is the ideal intervention to nudge micromobility uptake?
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | Hours of engagement: Full-time 29 June - 24 July 2026 This project will be conducted on-site, with hybrid participation possible based on the applicant's needs. |
| Description | The project seeks to understand a critical urban mobility challenge, how can micromobility close the first/last mile connectivity gap between public transport, home, work, and other destinations? This winter research project will serve as a qualitive follow-up study to the iMOVE study “Closing the loop on first/last mile transportation: assessing the connection between micromobility and public transport in Brisbane”. It aimed to evaluate whether micromobility, particularly shared e-mobility schemes such as e-scooters and e-bikes, could effectively complement public transport to provide door-to-door sustainable and equitable transport solutions. While Brisbane’s public transport network is a robust mix of a modern bus fleet, intercity train services, ferries, and a newly launched all-electric metro service, barriers to its usage exist. The introduction of 50-cent public transport fares in Brisbane largely eliminated price as one of these barriers. Still, the classic first/last mile problem in connecting a person’s starting and ending locations persists. This transport gap typically occurs between the trip origin/destination and the location of public transport services, which dissuades public transport usage. One possible solution is to encourage the usage of micromobility to access public transport. Particularly, shared e-mobility (e.g., e-scooters, e-bikes) presents an option to combat the first/last mile problem, allowing for on-demand and convenient short-distance transport. Over 6 months, the study collected nearly 1,500 survey responses to assess the effectiveness two interventions: (1) installation of an e-mobility parking hubs, and (2) $1 reduced fare rides. This winter research project will entail conducting a qualitative follow-up study. The purpose is to understand what potential interventions will entice users to use micromobility to close the first/last mile gap. The study will focus on short-distance car drivers. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | Scholars will learn qualitative interview and analytical methods and be directly involved in writing academic journal articles from the project. The project is ideal for a student interested in research and pursuing a subsequent HDR project (e.g., Honours, Master’s Thesis, PhD). The student will work directly with Brisbane City Council on the project and be provided an opportunity to present their work to the council’s transport planning group. |
| Suitable for | This project is open to applications from students interested in qualitative research and/or active transport. 3rd – 4th year undergraduate or postgraduate students only. |
| Primary supervisor |
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| Further information | Prospective students are welcome to contact Dr Buning with any questions. |
Enhanced SEC oversight and M&A Activity: Evidence from staggered Adoption of MMoU in different countries
| Hours of engagement and delivery mode | The project will require 36 hours of engagement every week for the duration of 4 weeks (29 June - 24 July 2026). The project will be offered through a hybrid arrangement; online and on-site at the St Lucia campus. |
| Description | The project examines whether strengthened U.S. SEC enforcement affects M&A decisions of U.S. cross-listed foreign firms. Prior research shows that U.S. cross-listing improves governance and increases both takeover likelihood and acquisition premiums (Cosset and Meknassi, 2013). Separately, recent evidence suggests that enhanced SEC enforcement following the adoption of the MMoU reduces borrowing costs for cross-listed firms (Chy et al., 2025). However, little is known about whether strengthened regulatory oversight influences real corporate decisions such as mergers and acquisitions. This research is motivated by this gap. If enforcement reduces information asymmetry and limits private benefits extraction, it may increase acquisition activity and improve deal quality. Alternatively, stricter enforcement may increase regulatory risk and reduce managerial flexibility, potentially discouraging acquisitions. To identify this relationship, we will use a difference-in-differences framework that exploits the staggered timing of countries’ MMoU adoption as a quasi-natural experiment. Cross-listed firms from countries that adopt the MMoU serve as the treated group, while non-cross-listed firms serve as controls. The main variable of interest is the interaction between cross-listing status and the post-MMoU period. The empirical design will include firm- and year-fixed effects, along with standard control variables such as firm size, leverage, profitability, growth opportunities, cash holdings, and prior acquisition activity. |
| Expected outcomes and deliverables | The potential scholar will work as a research assistant on this project and gain hands-on experience in empirical corporate finance research. Expected skills developed include data collection, data management, academic writing, modelling and analysis. The scholar's contribution to the project will be formally acknowledged in the resulting research outputs, and the experience will serve as strong evidence of research capability for their CV and future academic or professional applications. |
| Suitable for | This project is open to applications from students enrolled in Honours, BAFE, the Master of Commerce, and the Master of Global Management programs only. |
| Primary supervisor | Dr Shirina Lin, UQ Business School, University of Queensland. Dr Dewan Rahman, UQ Business School, University of Queensland. |
| Further information | Please email us your expression of interest. You can contact us at s.hsinen@uq.edu.au or d.rahman@business.uq.edu.au. |