The Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (WDARF), a national-level research fund offered by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA), aims to foster high quality and rigorous applied research in skills, workforce development and lifelong learning to support the SWDA's key thrusts and national-level policies. It encourages inter-disciplinary research and seeks to strengthen research capabilities, through leveraging both local and international expertise. The WDARF Grant Call is administered by the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) on behalf of the SWDA. The grant is awarded through an open, competitive bidding approach, where submitted proposals go through a technical expert review and evaluation, before they are presented to a Research Committee for approval.
Workforce Development Applied Research Fund (WDARF) 2026 Grant Call
The Expression of Interest (EOI) submission is now closed.
Previous Result
Grant Call 2021
Battling Ageism, Myths, Misperceptions of Mature and Older Workers and Learners: Breaking Barriers, Mitigating Precarity, and Finding Fulfilment in Late Adulthood
Mr Poon King Wang, Singapore University of Technology and Design
This research study adopts an ecosystem/whole of society lens to understand ageist beliefs and proposes ways to breakdown these perceptions. Additional aims are to understand how mature/older workers plan for and transit into different phases of learning, work, and retirement as they experience change in priorities, health conditions, financial circumstances, and life aspirations, and how lifelong learning enriches them so that they continue contributing to the economy and positively influence society.
Grant Call 2021
How and Why University Graduates Seize Opportunities Offered by Lifelong Learning Policies
Dr Paul A. O'Keefe, National University of Singapore
This project will provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understanding participation in Lifelong Learning (LLL) programmes, particularly SkillsFuture Credits and other SkillsFuture programmes. We will focus predominantly on university graduates, to understand key factors that lead highly educated workers to use LLL policies, and how such policies could be designed to encourage greater usage of LLL programmes.
Grant Call 2021
Improving Professional Development through an Intelligent Adaptive Learning Approach: An In-depth Study on Construction Project Managers
Associate Professor Goh Yang Miang, National University of Singapore
This study focuses on the use of an adaptive learning approach to improve professional development for construction project managers. Adaptive learning, which has been successful in higher education, offers personalized learning pathways that can address the time constraints faced by professionals. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of adaptive learning in professional development.
Grant Call 2020
“Do you know how you present?”: Effectiveness of VR-Augmented Feedback for Effective Oral Presentation
Associate Professor Quek Choon Lang Gwendoline, Nanyang Technological University
This study will design the VR-augmented feedback environment to investigate the effectiveness of VR-augmented feedback in training. With this consideration, the objectives of this project are the following: 1. To develop the presenters' presentation skills for engaging the adult audience in a virtual training environment. 2. To investigate the effectiveness of the virtual reality-based environment in improving presenters’ oral presentation skills.
Grant Call 2020
Changing Mindsets to Enable Workers to Thrive in an Uncertain Job Market
Dr Patricia Chen, National University of Singapore
This research aims to address the psychological barriers that could hinder workers’ motivation to engage in lifelong learning. The study introduces two theoretically novel mindsets as potential solutions to reduce these psychological barriers (i.e. do not believe that they can learn new, different kind of skills, fear of failure). The first is an “expansive growth mindset” (the belief that one can take up and master new, different kinds of skills) and the second, an “experimental mindset” (an orientation towards approaching any problem through iterative experimenting—including generating various possible solutions, trials-and-error, gaining feedback, revising methods based on the feedback and trying again). The team will conduct psychological research on Singapore working adults to measure and test the global efficacy of these mindsets. In Aim 1 (i.e. understanding two important psychological barriers to upskilling and reskilling), the team will design and validate measures of these theoretically novel mindsets, and examine their relation with people’s learning attitudes and motivations. In Aim 2 (i.e. designing and testing mindset interventions to address the psychological barriers), the team will design and test scalable mindset interventions to motivate greater engagement in upskilling and reskilling (e.g. greater uptake of SkillsFuture credits). The findings will contribute to possible solutions to enhance lifelong learning in Singapore.
