Oral presentation: Francis Laclé

Background and objective: One way to characterize the difficulties of conducting research on small islands is to describe them as a combination of methodological barriers, ethical situatedness, and resource and logistical constraints. Drawing on examples from a PhD project on the Caribbean island of Aruba, we mapped challenges onto a framework that identifies common drawbacks and evaluates potential solutions, with the aim of helping current and future small island researchers mitigate and manage risks when conducting data science research.

Method: Using examples from a PhD project conducted at a small-island university in collaboration with a continental university, we first identify and categorize key challenges. We then evaluate the proposed solutions using a SWOT analysis. Finally, the lessons learned were visualized through cross-functional flowcharts.

Results and conclusion: The PhD project integrates exercise physiology, machine learning, and telehealth. Six key challenges were identified and grouped into three categories: methodological barriers, ethical considerations, and resource and logistical constraints. A retrospective SWOT analysis of the strategies used provided additional insights that had not been recognized during the project itself. In addition, cross-functional flowcharts, commonly applied in business process analysis, proved helpful in systematically visualizing lessons learned. To our knowledge, this structured approach to reflecting on PhD challenges is uncommon and warrants further validation by other researchers working in small-island contexts.