Research Associate/Fellow (1-year contract), YPHSL

2-5 Years

Job Description

Responsibilities

Review, assess, and synthesise research materials prepared by local experts in Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam,Thailand, and Indonesia. This will involve identifying key findings, clarifying legal and institutional points, checkinginternal consistency, and integrating jurisdiction-specific insights into a coherent comparative framework.

Conduct independent legal, policy, and institutional research on AI governance in the smart city context to identify overarching and synthetic themes. This will include research into legislation, regulations, policy documents, procurement rules, government circulars, soft-law frameworks, standards, public-sector guidance, smart city strategies,and relevant secondary literature.

Prepare jurisdictional maps of regulation applicable to AI-enabled smart city systems. The mapping should include notonly general AI governance instruments and AI Act-type developments, but also procurement rules, digital governmentframeworks, data governance rules, cybersecurity obligations, public-private partnership structures, and sectoralregimes relevant to urban AI deployment.

Develop a typology of AI regulation in the selected cities and jurisdictions, identifying the main regulatory approaches, institutional actors, legal instruments, enforcement mechanisms, governance gaps, and points of convergence ordivergence.

Work with the project lead to develop a broader taxonomy from the jurisdictional typologies. This taxonomy should help explain different models of AI governance in Asian smart city contexts, including differences between statutoryregulation, standards-based governance, procurement-led governance, policy-led governance, sectoral regulation, and informal or experimental governance mechanisms.

Contribute to project outputs, which may include internal research memoranda, comparative tables, literature reviews,policy briefs, workshop materials, public reports, academic articles, and grant-related deliverables. The successfulcandidate may also assist in preparing presentations and supporting project workshops or expert consultations. Thesuccessful candidate will have the opportunity and support to produce peer-reviewed outputs (sole and co-authored withthe Work Package Lead) as well.

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Masters in Law, Public Policy, Governance, Technology Regulation, Urban Studies, PoliticalScience, Public Administration, or related fields.
2 to 3+ years working experience in related fields.

PhD in Law, Public Policy, Governance, Technology Regulation, Urban Studies, Political Science, PublicAdministration, or related fields.
4+ years working experience in related fields.

Ability to demonstrate strong research potential and the ability to contribute effectively to the mapping, synthesis, and drafting work required by the project.
Demonstrated research ability, including the capacity to locate, evaluate, and synthesise legal, policy, andinstitutional materials.
Strong analytical and writing skills.
Familiarity with one or more of the following fields: AI governance, digital regulation, smart cities, publicprocurement, data protection, cybersecurity, administrative law, public administration, or technology policy.
The ability to work independently and produce clear, structured research outputs.
The ability to engage carefully with comparative materials across different legal and institutional systems.
Meticulous individual, intellectually curious, and methodologically disciplined.
Comfortable working across law, policy, technology governance, and urban administration.
Knowledge of moving beyond simple description of AI laws and develop a more textured account of how AI isactually governed in the smart city context, including through procurement, institutional practice, standards, contracts, and administrative systems.
The ability to combine doctrinal precision with comparative imagination: identifying what each jurisdiction doeson its own terms, while also contributing to a broader account of how inclusive AI governance is emerging across Asian cities.