Since the Academic Year 2020-2021, research has been conducted more synergistically through the operation of the different centers of research in the university based in the different colleges. The centers of research focus on the strengths of their flagship programs and those of their faculty members. The university believes that the research agenda should be shaped primarily by the faculty members who are guided by the principles that guide research in the university. It should also be established on the accomplishments of its academic programs vis-a-vis the search of solutions for longstanding problems. As such, the research expertise in the university is distributed across colleges, and as a consequence, facilitates greater faculty and disciplinal collaboration. The university encourages interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration given its strength as a research organization. Thus despite the priority focus per college, inter-college collaborations are expected.

The following are the centers of research in the university:

College of Arts, Sciences, and Education’s Center for Stigma Reduction Research (CSRR)

Established as a result of groundbreaking research projects on HIV-AIDS funded by the National Research Council of the Philippines in 2017 and on the development of a Stigma Reduction Questionnaire funded by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, the CSRR is most suited to engage in the following areas:

1. Creative production in response to the seven priority research areas (environment, migration, inclusion, holistic health, literacy, older adults, and corporate social responsibility), particularly in reducing stigma related to all or any of them. This will be best led by the Communication and Visual Design and Communication Programs.
2. Research instrument development, particularly towards a more inclusive education and less stigmatizing communities. The champion for this is the Psychology Program.
3. Outcome-based education and education of the whole child, in response to the 21st century teaching and learning challenges facing the country and the St. Paul University System. This is primarily the responsibility of the Teacher Education Program.
4. Focus on the delivery of courses and dissemination of research outputs, particularly informed by research approaches where its faculty are considered experts, namely, narrative analysis, ethnography, design thinking, polling, and testing.

College of Business and Management’s Center for Enterprise Development towards Community Empowerment (CEDCE)

Established in response to the emergence of entrepreneurship as a way to facilitate community development, and the push of the national government to use research outputs to develop products and services. Informed by the different advocacies of the university, research towards the development of enterprises is considered a significant way to develop new ideas for community extension programs in the university. Given this, the CEDCE is most suited to conduct research in the following areas:

1. Product and service development especially advancing the different advocacies of the university and the previously identified research agenda (environment, migration, inclusion, holistic health, literacy, older adults, and corporate social responsibility).
2. Development of new business models, particularly those that respond to the new challenges presented by the pandemic and the growing trend towards online transactions.
3. Exploring the application of the circular economy, especially as more and more people are becoming more ethical in their choices and seeking options that reflect their ethical convictions and counter-cultural attitudes.
4. Creative use of digital technology to address the different challenges that communities face in the time of climate change and pandemics.
5. Establishing the Intellectual Property Office that will make applications for patents easier for the university’s faculty, staff, and students.
6. Solutions Farm and Technologies (SOFT) development to accelerate the development of prototypes of solutions ideated across the different colleges of the university.
7. Sharing of established and emergent knowledge on market and business management research allowing for new ways of integrating them in disciplines beyond business and management.

College of Music and the Performing Arts’ Center for Research in Creative Therapies (CRCT)

Resulting from the establishment of the music therapy program in the university in 2013, it seeks to establish itself as the hub of local knowledge about music therapy and other creative therapies that can take root in other colleges and programs. Being the trailblazer, it seeks to establish the guideposts for research in the crossroads of positivistic, humanistic, and interpretive paradigms which is rare since the country is still grappling with the notion of interdisciplinary research which is music therapy’s strength as a discipline. As such, it is positioned to do engage in the following areas:

1. Intensifying music therapy research so that it can come up with different research templates that can be applied not just to music therapy but also in other interdisciplinary fields of study.
2. Exploring collaborative research with organizations and institutions advocating non- pharmacological interventions for acute and chronic health challenges.
3. Defining the unique trajectory of music therapy research in the country vis-a-vis existing trajectories abroad.
4. Continuing the music therapy conference held annually to promote research conducted in the field of music therapy and discourse about them.
5. Championing the interdisciplinary research in the university and in the St. Paul University System

College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences’ Center for Nursing Education Research (CNER)

Having shaped the leadership in nursing schools and health institutions in the country through its highly competent graduates, the CNER leverages its research on the strength of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences as a top performing nursing school. As such, the said college considers nursing education not just a quality service it has provided through the years but also a degree program at its highest academic level. Given that, the CNER is deemed fit to lead the way in the following areas:

1. Advancing research ensuring quality nursing education especially as expressed or applied in the previously identified research areas (environment, migration, inclusion, holistic health, literacy, older adults, and corporate social responsibility).
2. Culture of care that is likely to be ignored or sacrificed as technologies in health service delivery take the spotlight in the age of digital technology and pandemic scenarios looming in the future.
3. Pastoral Care the most tangible form of care for end-of-life cases and patients with life- threatening co-morbidities.
4. Community nursing to help improve the state of health in communities and nurture a major ministry of the SPC sisters since the establishment of their congregation.
5. Service learning to advance the cause of learning to serve while in the academic setting which mirrors a congregation committed to the service of the community.
6. Research education in nursing and health sciences, particularly focusing on research approaches where its faculty researchers excel, particularly in phenomenology, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, case study, and techniques like Delphi Method and book development. The university deems it important for the college to be considered a champion of qualitative research in a highly positivist discipline and to highlight the human dimension of the science of nursing.

Expression of Commitment

As a community, we, the top academic administrators, together with the coordination of the Center for Research, Innovation, and Development, commit ourselves to advancing the above research agenda, making sure that they are pursued and looked after by our esteemed faculty researchers from the inception of the research projects to the dissemination, and application of their findings. We are committed to the pursuit of excellence, collaboration, and service in the context of research and convinced that only by actively and deliberately engaging in the above areas of research can we truly achieve the goals of Paulinian formation in the here and now. Hence, we shall act to ascertain that research in the university, particularly in the identified priority areas, is actively pursued by learners at all levels and conducted ethically and with utmost quality by our research faculty.

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