Semester 4 synthesises the skills and knowledge from taught modules and from collected data in social work practices by preparing a 25,000 word Research Project/thesis (25 ECTS). Students will design and undertake an applied research project, thereby gaining crucial skills in conducting action-oriented social research and a firm basis for applied social research or further doctoral study in social sciences. The demand for practice implications in both the written and the oral part of the project ensures a more career-relevant research experience than traditional dissertations. Students will be distributed equally among university partners by the consortium for their research projects and given the option to nominate first, second and third choice destinations. Local supervisors from the university where students are enrolled will be allocated for the whole semester. To strengthen the impact on social work and to emphasize the global perspective in the research project small group supervision will be established through Skype involving one academic and three or four fellow students. The small group seminars will explore two important aspects of the ADVANCES Research Project: international relevance of the topic and the implications of the research findings for social work practice. Crucially, students will be responsible for generating their own research topics in order to ensure maximum fit with their career goals and professional interests. Planning for the research projects will begin during the Summer School at the end of Year One to ensure maximum support and time to organize the research process. The consortium and associate partners will offer up to 5 students in each cohort the opportunity to visit the non-EU associate partner universities for one month of data collection.