Show that you understand the current state of research on your topic.
The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.
One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.
Download our research proposal template
Discover proofreading & editing
Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.
Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:
The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.
Your introduction should:
To guide your introduction , include information about:
As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.
In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:
Following the literature review, restate your main objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.
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To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.
For example, your results might have implications for:
Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.
Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.
Download our research schedule template
Research phase | Objectives | Deadline |
---|---|---|
1. Background research and literature review | 20th January | |
2. Research design planning | and data analysis methods | 13th February |
3. Data collection and preparation | with selected participants and code interviews | 24th March |
4. Data analysis | of interview transcripts | 22nd April |
5. Writing | 17th June | |
6. Revision | final work | 28th July |
If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.
Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:
To determine your budget, think about:
If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Methodology
Statistics
Research bias
Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .
Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.
I will compare …
A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.
Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.
A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.
A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.
A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.
All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.
Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.
Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.
The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.
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A Straightforward How-To Guide (With Examples)
By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | August 2019 (Updated April 2023)
Writing up a strong research proposal for a dissertation or thesis is much like a marriage proposal. It’s a task that calls on you to win somebody over and persuade them that what you’re planning is a great idea. An idea they’re happy to say ‘yes’ to. This means that your dissertation proposal needs to be persuasive , attractive and well-planned. In this post, I’ll show you how to write a winning dissertation proposal, from scratch.
Before you start:
– Understand exactly what a research proposal is – Ask yourself these 4 questions
The 5 essential ingredients:
The research proposal is literally that: a written document that communicates what you propose to research, in a concise format. It’s where you put all that stuff that’s spinning around in your head down on to paper, in a logical, convincing fashion.
Convincing is the keyword here, as your research proposal needs to convince the assessor that your research is clearly articulated (i.e., a clear research question) , worth doing (i.e., is unique and valuable enough to justify the effort), and doable within the restrictions you’ll face (time limits, budget, skill limits, etc.). If your proposal does not address these three criteria, your research won’t be approved, no matter how “exciting” the research idea might be.
PS – if you’re completely new to proposal writing, we’ve got a detailed walkthrough video covering two successful research proposals here .
Before starting the writing process, you need to ask yourself 4 important questions . If you can’t answer them succinctly and confidently, you’re not ready – you need to go back and think more deeply about your dissertation topic .
You should be able to answer the following 4 questions before starting your dissertation or thesis research proposal:
If you can’t answer these questions clearly and concisely, you’re not yet ready to write your research proposal – revisit our post on choosing a topic .
If you can, that’s great – it’s time to start writing up your dissertation proposal. Next, I’ll discuss what needs to go into your research proposal, and how to structure it all into an intuitive, convincing document with a linear narrative.
Research proposals can vary in style between institutions and disciplines, but here I’ll share with you a handy 5-section structure you can use. These 5 sections directly address the core questions we spoke about earlier, ensuring that you present a convincing proposal. If your institution already provides a proposal template, there will likely be substantial overlap with this, so you’ll still get value from reading on.
For each section discussed below, make sure you use headers and sub-headers (ideally, numbered headers) to help the reader navigate through your document, and to support them when they need to revisit a previous section. Don’t just present an endless wall of text, paragraph after paragraph after paragraph…
Top Tip: Use MS Word Styles to format headings. This will allow you to be clear about whether a sub-heading is level 2, 3, or 4. Additionally, you can view your document in ‘outline view’ which will show you only your headings. This makes it much easier to check your structure, shift things around and make decisions about where a section needs to sit. You can also generate a 100% accurate table of contents using Word’s automatic functionality.
Your research proposal’s title should be your main research question in its simplest form, possibly with a sub-heading providing basic details on the specifics of the study. For example:
“Compliance with equality legislation in the charity sector: a study of the ‘reasonable adjustments’ made in three London care homes”
As you can see, this title provides a clear indication of what the research is about, in broad terms. It paints a high-level picture for the first-time reader, which gives them a taste of what to expect. Always aim for a clear, concise title . Don’t feel the need to capture every detail of your research in your title – your proposal will fill in the gaps.
In this section of your research proposal, you’ll expand on what you’ve communicated in the title, by providing a few paragraphs which offer more detail about your research topic. Importantly, the focus here is the topic – what will you research and why is that worth researching? This is not the place to discuss methodology, practicalities, etc. – you’ll do that later.
You should cover the following:
Importantly, you should aim to use short sentences and plain language – don’t babble on with extensive jargon, acronyms and complex language. Assume that the reader is an intelligent layman – not a subject area specialist (even if they are). Remember that the best writing is writing that can be easily understood and digested. Keep it simple.
Note that some universities may want some extra bits and pieces in your introduction section. For example, personal development objectives, a structural outline, etc. Check your brief to see if there are any other details they expect in your proposal, and make sure you find a place for these.
Next, you’ll need to specify what the scope of your research will be – this is also known as the delimitations . In other words, you need to make it clear what you will be covering and, more importantly, what you won’t be covering in your research. Simply put, this is about ring fencing your research topic so that you have a laser-sharp focus.
All too often, students feel the need to go broad and try to address as many issues as possible, in the interest of producing comprehensive research. Whilst this is admirable, it’s a mistake. By tightly refining your scope, you’ll enable yourself to go deep with your research, which is what you need to earn good marks. If your scope is too broad, you’re likely going to land up with superficial research (which won’t earn marks), so don’t be afraid to narrow things down.
In this section of your research proposal, you need to provide a (relatively) brief discussion of the existing literature. Naturally, this will not be as comprehensive as the literature review in your actual dissertation, but it will lay the foundation for that. In fact, if you put in the effort at this stage, you’ll make your life a lot easier when it’s time to write your actual literature review chapter.
There are a few things you need to achieve in this section:
When you write up your literature review, keep these three objectives front of mind, especially number two (revealing the gap in the literature), so that your literature review has a clear purpose and direction . Everything you write should be contributing towards one (or more) of these objectives in some way. If it doesn’t, you need to ask yourself whether it’s truly needed.
Top Tip: Don’t fall into the trap of just describing the main pieces of literature, for example, “A says this, B says that, C also says that…” and so on. Merely describing the literature provides no value. Instead, you need to synthesise it, and use it to address the three objectives above.
Now that you’ve clearly explained both your intended research topic (in the introduction) and the existing research it will draw on (in the literature review section), it’s time to get practical and explain exactly how you’ll be carrying out your own research. In other words, your research methodology.
In this section, you’ll need to answer two critical questions :
In other words, this is not just about explaining WHAT you’ll be doing, it’s also about explaining WHY. In fact, the justification is the most important part , because that justification is how you demonstrate a good understanding of research design (which is what assessors want to see).
Some essential design choices you need to cover in your research proposal include:
This list is not exhaustive – these are just some core attributes of research design. Check with your institution what level of detail they expect. The “ research onion ” by Saunders et al (2009) provides a good summary of the various design choices you ultimately need to make – you can read more about that here .
In addition to the technical aspects, you will need to address the practical side of the project. In other words, you need to explain what resources you’ll need (e.g., time, money, access to equipment or software, etc.) and how you intend to secure these resources. You need to show that your project is feasible, so any “make or break” type resources need to already be secured. The success or failure of your project cannot depend on some resource which you’re not yet sure you have access to.
Another part of the practicalities discussion is project and risk management . In other words, you need to show that you have a clear project plan to tackle your research with. Some key questions to address:
A good way to demonstrate that you’ve thought this through is to include a Gantt chart and a risk register (in the appendix if word count is a problem). With these two tools, you can show that you’ve got a clear, feasible plan, and you’ve thought about and accounted for the potential risks.
Tip – Be honest about the potential difficulties – but show that you are anticipating solutions and workarounds. This is much more impressive to an assessor than an unrealistically optimistic proposal which does not anticipate any challenges whatsoever.
The final step is to edit and proofread your proposal – very carefully. It sounds obvious, but all too often poor editing and proofreading ruin a good proposal. Nothing is more off-putting for an assessor than a poorly edited, typo-strewn document. It sends the message that you either do not pay attention to detail, or just don’t care. Neither of these are good messages. Put the effort into editing and proofreading your proposal (or pay someone to do it for you) – it will pay dividends.
When you’re editing, watch out for ‘academese’. Many students can speak simply, passionately and clearly about their dissertation topic – but become incomprehensible the moment they turn the laptop on. You are not required to write in any kind of special, formal, complex language when you write academic work. Sure, there may be technical terms, jargon specific to your discipline, shorthand terms and so on. But, apart from those, keep your written language very close to natural spoken language – just as you would speak in the classroom. Imagine that you are explaining your project plans to your classmates or a family member. Remember, write for the intelligent layman, not the subject matter experts. Plain-language, concise writing is what wins hearts and minds – and marks!
And there you have it – how to write your dissertation or thesis research proposal, from the title page to the final proof. Here’s a quick recap of the key takeaways:
Hopefully, this post has helped you better understand how to write up a winning research proposal. If you enjoyed it, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach Blog . If your university doesn’t provide any template for your proposal, you might want to try out our free research proposal template .
This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Research Proposal Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .
Thank you so much for the valuable insight that you have given, especially on the research proposal. That is what I have managed to cover. I still need to go back to the other parts as I got disturbed while still listening to Derek’s audio on you-tube. I am inspired. I will definitely continue with Grad-coach guidance on You-tube.
Thanks for the kind words :). All the best with your proposal.
First of all, thanks a lot for making such a wonderful presentation. The video was really useful and gave me a very clear insight of how a research proposal has to be written. I shall try implementing these ideas in my RP.
Once again, I thank you for this content.
I found reading your outline on writing research proposal very beneficial. I wish there was a way of submitting my draft proposal to you guys for critiquing before I submit to the institution.
Hi Bonginkosi
Thank you for the kind words. Yes, we do provide a review service. The best starting point is to have a chat with one of our coaches here: https://gradcoach.com/book/new/ .
Hello team GRADCOACH, may God bless you so much. I was totally green in research. Am so happy for your free superb tutorials and resources. Once again thank you so much Derek and his team.
You’re welcome, Erick. Good luck with your research proposal 🙂
thank you for the information. its precise and on point.
Really a remarkable piece of writing and great source of guidance for the researchers. GOD BLESS YOU for your guidance. Regards
Thanks so much for your guidance. It is easy and comprehensive the way you explain the steps for a winning research proposal.
Thank you guys so much for the rich post. I enjoyed and learn from every word in it. My problem now is how to get into your platform wherein I can always seek help on things related to my research work ? Secondly, I wish to find out if there is a way I can send my tentative proposal to you guys for examination before I take to my supervisor Once again thanks very much for the insights
Thanks for your kind words, Desire.
If you are based in a country where Grad Coach’s paid services are available, you can book a consultation by clicking the “Book” button in the top right.
Best of luck with your studies.
May God bless you team for the wonderful work you are doing,
If I have a topic, Can I submit it to you so that you can draft a proposal for me?? As I am expecting to go for masters degree in the near future.
Thanks for your comment. We definitely cannot draft a proposal for you, as that would constitute academic misconduct. The proposal needs to be your own work. We can coach you through the process, but it needs to be your own work and your own writing.
Best of luck with your research!
I found a lot of many essential concepts from your material. it is real a road map to write a research proposal. so thanks a lot. If there is any update material on your hand on MBA please forward to me.
GradCoach is a professional website that presents support and helps for MBA student like me through the useful online information on the page and with my 1-on-1 online coaching with the amazing and professional PhD Kerryen.
Thank you Kerryen so much for the support and help 🙂
I really recommend dealing with such a reliable services provider like Gradcoah and a coach like Kerryen.
Hi, Am happy for your service and effort to help students and researchers, Please, i have been given an assignment on research for strategic development, the task one is to formulate a research proposal to support the strategic development of a business area, my issue here is how to go about it, especially the topic or title and introduction. Please, i would like to know if you could help me and how much is the charge.
This content is practical, valuable, and just great!
Thank you very much!
Hi Derek, Thank you for the valuable presentation. It is very helpful especially for beginners like me. I am just starting my PhD.
This is quite instructive and research proposal made simple. Can I have a research proposal template?
Great! Thanks for rescuing me, because I had no former knowledge in this topic. But with this piece of information, I am now secured. Thank you once more.
I enjoyed listening to your video on how to write a proposal. I think I will be able to write a winning proposal with your advice. I wish you were to be my supervisor.
Dear Derek Jansen,
Thank you for your great content. I couldn’t learn these topics in MBA, but now I learned from GradCoach. Really appreciate your efforts….
From Afghanistan!
I have got very essential inputs for startup of my dissertation proposal. Well organized properly communicated with video presentation. Thank you for the presentation.
Wow, this is absolutely amazing guys. Thank you so much for the fruitful presentation, you’ve made my research much easier.
this helps me a lot. thank you all so much for impacting in us. may god richly bless you all
How I wish I’d learn about Grad Coach earlier. I’ve been stumbling around writing and rewriting! Now I have concise clear directions on how to put this thing together. Thank you!
Fantastic!! Thank You for this very concise yet comprehensive guidance.
Even if I am poor in English I would like to thank you very much.
Thank you very much, this is very insightful.
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How to write a phd research proposal.
In order to help you with your application, the information below aims to give some guidance on how a typical research proposal might look.
Your research proposal is a concise statement (up to 3,000 words) of the rationale for your research proposal, the research questions to be answered and how you propose to address them. We know that during the early stages of your PhD you are likely to refine your thinking and methodology in discussion with your supervisors.
However, we want to see that you can construct a fairly rigorous, high quality research proposal.
We use your research proposal to help us decide whether you would be a suitable candidate to study at PhD level. We therefore assess your proposal on its quality, originality, and coherence. It also helps us to decide if your research interests match those of academics in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS) and whether they would be able to provide suitably qualified supervision for your proposed research.
Your proposal should include the following:
Title. A short, indicative title is best.
Abstract. This is a succinct summary of your research proposal (approximately 200-300 words) that will present a condensed outline, enabling the reader to get a very quick overview of your proposed project, lines of inquiry and possible outcomes. An abstract is often written last, after you have written the proposal and are able to summarise it effectively.
Rationale for the research project. This might include a description of the question/debate/phenomenon of interest; an explanation of why the topic is of interest to you; and an outline of the reasons why the topic should be of interest to research and/ or practice (the 'so what?' question).
Aims and initial research question. What are the aims and objectives of the research? State clearly the puzzle you are addressing, and the research question that you intend to pursue. It is acceptable to have multiple research questions, but it is a good idea to clarify which is the main research question. If you have hypotheses, discuss them here. A research proposal can and should make a positive and persuasive first impression and demonstrate your potential to become a good researcher. In particular, you need to demonstrate that you can think critically and analytically as well as communicate your ideas clearly.
Research context for your proposed project. Provide a short introduction to your area of interest with a succinct, selective and critical review of the relevant literature. Demonstrate that you understand the theoretical underpinnings and main debates and issues in your research area and how your proposed research will make an original and necessary contribution to this. You need to demonstrate how your proposed research will fill a gap in existing knowledge.
Intended methodology. Outline how you plan to conduct the research and the data sources that you will use. We do not expect you to have planned a very detailed methodology at this stage, but you need to provide an overview of how you will conduct your research (qualitative and/or quantitative methods) and why this methodology is suited for your proposed study. You need to be convincing about the appropriateness and feasibility of the approaches you are suggesting, and reflective about problems you might encounter (including ethical and data protection issues) in collecting and analysing your data.
Expected outcomes and impact. How do you think the research might add to existing knowledge; what might it enable organisations or interested parties to do differently? Increasingly in academia (and this is particularly so for ESRC-funded studentships), PhD students are being asked to consider how their research might contribute to both academic impact and/or economic and societal impact. (This is well explained on the ESRC website if you would like to find out more.) Please consider broader collaborations and partnerships (academic and non-academic) that will support your research. Collaborative activity can lead to a better understanding of the ways in which academic research can translate into practice and it can help to inform and improve the quality of your research and its impact.
Timetable. What is your initial estimation of the timetable of the dissertation? When will each of the key stages start and finish (refining proposal; literature review; developing research methods; fieldwork; analysis; writing the draft; final submission). There are likely to overlaps between the stages.
Why Bristol? Why – specifically – do you want to study for your PhD at Bristol ? How would you fit into the School's research themes and research culture . You do not need to identify supervisors at the application stage although it can be helpful if you do.
Bibliography. Do make sure that you cite what you see as the key readings in the field. This does not have to be comprehensive but you are illustrating the range of sources you might use in your research.
We expect your research proposal to be clear, concise and grammatically correct. Prior to submitting your research proposal, please make sure that you have addressed the following issues:
Written by Andrew Feldman
Of course, the odds of receiving postdoctoral fellowships are not high (typically single digit percentages). Knowing these odds, I applied for eight fellowships: four through university departments and four through government agencies. I initially felt like I had no idea how to be successful, especially since I received none of the 12 doctoral fellowships I had previously applied for. I also had a rough start: my first postdoctoral fellowship application was rejected a month after submission for being slightly out of scope. It certainly required mental fortitude to continue through this application process.
After speaking with colleagues in my field, common themes emerged in how they approach proposals, especially in how to write a stand-out research statement. At this point starting the fifth year of my PhD, I understood the importance of conveying a strong vision in my research statement: it is essential for getting and staying funded regardless of how stellar one’s publication record is. While I knew the motivation and methodology well, my colleagues taught me that conveying my vision in a convincing, focused, and exciting way for other scientists is a different matter. I believe their collective advice was pivotal to improving my research statement and ultimately getting me on the “funded” pile for three of the eight fellowships. I share some of these insights here.
1) Why now? Why me? When formulating your idea, focus on ensuring that your proposal answers why this research should be completed right now, as opposed to anytime. Many committees strongly weigh how much of a priority your research question is. The best introductions will extend beyond an informative literature review and directly state why answering your question is necessary and urgent.
They also want to know: why are you the best person to address this problem as opposed to someone else? Explicitly sell your fit to your research problem and your vision. Lean on your PI choice here – PIs can fill in any technical knowledge gaps and provide complementary tools to those learned during your PhD.
Most surprising to me is how much focus you need place on “why now? why me?” in your motivation. There is no fixed number, but be sure you spend more real estate motivating why the problem and approach is so amazing rather than on addressing every pitfall with your research question and approach.
2) Your audience is broader than you think. Many proposal writers will incorrectly assume (like I initially did) that their committee will include that harsh reviewer of their journal articles who can identify all methodological shortcomings. Rather than trying to defend against this omniscient and unlikely reader, keep the focus on convincing a researcher of an adjacent field that your questions and approach are spectacular. An excellent research statement will ultimately excite any researcher enough to fund the work.
Another nuance to consider: postdoctoral fellowships are mainly offered through federal government agencies (i.e., NSF, NIH, etc.) and specific university departments. Government-based fellowships will be reviewed by researchers closer to your field (but not quite as close as that of a journal article review). In this case, lean slightly towards convincing them that you understand the limitations of the approach and that your background fits the problem. By contrast, university departmental fellowships will typically have committees of professors that will not be in your exact field. For this audience, lean towards exciting them with an accessible, clear problem motivation, provide only a broad overview of the methods you would use, and be very brief.
3) Spend time just thinking: resist the urge to open Microsoft Word and start typing. Spend time purely thinking and schematically charting out your research problem and anticipated results. If you sufficiently plan, the statement will write itself.
4) Less is more: your reviewers are just as busy as you are. They want to see your main idea fast. You may see a ten page limit and feel an urge to cram in as much material as possible. I did this initially, but the statement will quickly become noisy. Instead, prioritize reader friendliness. This means more pictures and less walls of text. Reviewers are thankful for 1.5 spacing, 12 point font, and schematic figures with question marks and arrows that clearly convey your research questions. Use parsimony in discussing methods – mention only the essential methods and main anticipated challenges.
5) Start early: I started formulating my research statement in June 2020. My first deadline was in early August 2020. While this seems early to start, it was not! Give yourself at least two months before your first fellowship deadline to formulate a problem with your prospective PI (or any co-PIs) and write your statements. Provide adequate time for your PI(s) to provide feedback on your ideas and statements. If applying to multiple fellowships with different PIs and/or different project topics, start even earlier.
Lastly, I encourage asking your colleagues for help. Folks around you regardless of career stage have likely spent a significant portion of their time writing research statements. The MIT Communication Lab was a great source of help for me that I used multiple times! Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I was always glad I did.
What is a research proposal.
A research proposal should present your idea or question and expected outcomes with clarity and definition – the what .
It should also make a case for why your question is significant and what value it will bring to your discipline – the why .
What it shouldn't do is answer the question – that's what your research will do.
Research proposals are significant because it formally outlines your intended research. You need to provide details on how you will go about your research, including:
Think of it as a tool that will help you clarify your idea and make conducting your research easier.
Usually no more than 2000 words, but check the requirements of your degree, and your supervisor or research coordinator.
Presenting your idea clearly and concisely demonstrates that you can write this way – an attribute of a potential research candidate that is valued by assessors.
Project title.
Your title should clearly indicate what your proposed research is about.
State the name, department and faculty or school of the academic who has agreed to supervise you. Rest assured, your research supervisor will work with you to refine your research proposal ahead of submission to ensure it meets the needs of your discipline.
Describe your proposed mode of research. This may be closely linked to your discipline and is where you will describe the style or format of your research, e.g. data, field research, composition, written work, social performance and mixed media etc.
This is not required for research in the sciences, but your research supervisor will be able to guide you on discipline-specific requirements.
What are you trying to achieve with your research? What is the purpose?
This section should reference why you're applying for a research degree. Are you addressing a gap in the current research? Do you want to look at a theory more closely and test it out? Is there something you're trying to prove or disprove? To help you clarify this, think about the potential outcome of your research if you were successful – that is your aim. Make sure that this is a focused statement.
Your objectives will be your aim broken down – the steps to achieving the intended outcome. They are the smaller proof points that will underpin your research's purpose. Be logical in the order of how you present these so that each succeeds the previous, i.e. if you need to achieve 'a' before 'b' before 'c', then make sure you order your objectives a, b, c.
A concise summary of what your research is about. It outlines the key aspects of what you will investigate as well as the expected outcomes. It briefly covers the what, why and how of your research.
Tip: A good way to evaluate if you have written a strong synopsis, is to get somebody to read it without reading the rest of your research proposal. Would they know what your research is about?
Now that you have your question clarified, it is time to explain the why. Here, you need to demonstrate an understanding of the current research climate in your area of interest.
Providing context around your research topic through a literature review will show the assessor that you understand current dialogue around your research, and what is published.
Demonstrate you have a strong understanding of the key topics, significant studies and notable researchers in your area of research and how these have contributed to the current landscape.
In this section, you should consider the following:
Draw links between your research and the faculty or school you are applying at, and explain why you have chosen your supervisor, and what research have they or their school done to reinforce and support your own work. Cite these reasons to demonstrate how your research will benefit and contribute to the current body of knowledge.
Provide an overview of the methodology and techniques you will use to conduct your research. Cover what materials and equipment you will use, what theoretical frameworks will you draw on, and how will you collect data.
Highlight why you have chosen this particular methodology, but also why others may not have been as suitable. You need to demonstrate that you have put thought into your approach and why it's the most appropriate way to carry out your research.
It should also highlight potential limitations you anticipate, feasibility within time and other constraints, ethical considerations and how you will address these, as well as general resources.
A work plan is a critical component of your research proposal because it indicates the feasibility of completion within the timeframe and supports you in achieving your objectives throughout your degree.
Consider the milestones you aim to achieve at each stage of your research. A PhD or master's degree by research can take two to four years of full-time study to complete. It might be helpful to offer year one in detail and the following years in broader terms. Ultimately you have to show that your research is likely to be both original and finished – and that you understand the time involved.
Provide details of the resources you will need to carry out your research project. Consider equipment, fieldwork expenses, travel and a proposed budget, to indicate how realistic your research proposal is in terms of financial requirements and whether any adjustments are needed.
Provide a list of references that you've made throughout your research proposal.
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Written by Mark Bennett
You'll need to write a research proposal if you're submitting your own project plan as part of a PhD application. A good PhD proposal outlines the scope and significance of your topic and explains how you plan to research it.
It's helpful to think about the proposal like this: if the rest of your application explains your ability to do a PhD, the proposal demonstrates the actual PhD you plan to do. Of course, being able to effectively plan and explain a research project is one of the key qualifications for being able to complete one, which is why the proposal is such an important part of the PhD application process.
Thankfully, the secret to writing a good research proposal isn't complicated. It's simply a case of understanding what the proposal is for, what it needs to do and how it needs to be put together.
What is a phd research proposal.
First things first, do you need a research proposal for your PhD? It depends on the kind of project you want to do:
As a rule, advertised PhDs are very common in STEM subjects, whereas Arts, Humanities and Social Science students are more likely to propose their own PhDs.
Some PhD programmes actually wait and ask students to develop their research proposal during the degree (usually after they've completed some initial training). This is normal in the USA , but it's becoming more common for some UKRI-funded UK PhDs.
For the purposes of this guide we're going to assume that you do need to write a good research proposal for your PhD application. So let's explore what's involved in that.
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It's natural to be a little intimidated at the thought of structuring a PhD proposal, particularly if you've never written anything like this before.
But here's the thing: a research proposal isn't a fiendish test designed to catch you out and stop you ever doing a PhD. It's actually much more boring than that.
All a research proposal really is is a document that demonstrates three things:
Or to put it even more simply: the PhD is worth doing, it's doable and you can do it.
A successful PhD project has to make a significant original contribution to knowledge. If it doesn't, it won't meet the criteria for a doctoral degree and will probably fail the viva exam .
Your PhD proposal itself doesn't have to meet those criteria (or pass a viva!) but it does need to indicate that your PhD project eventually will.
It does that by first demonstrating that your research topic is original. That means nobody else has studied this same topic (or one very similar) before.
There are all sorts of ways a PhD can be original. You might examine new data or primary sources, to look at existing material from a fresh perspective, or deal with the impact of new events. It doesn't matter how your project is original, so long as your proposal is really specific about what makes it original.
You also need to explain why your proposed research will be academically significant. To do this properly, you'll need to acknowledge relevant existing scholarship and explain how your research will relate to it. You don't need to be exhaustive at this point, but you should be able to show how your PhD will contribute to its field and – ideally – indicate some of the gaps in knowledge it will aim to fill.
The final step in demonstrating your PhD is worthwhile is to suggest what will become possible as a result of your research. How could other researchers use or build upon your results? What might closing those gaps in academic knowledge mean for audiences outside the unviversity?
It isn't enough just to show that your research is worth doing; it also needs to actually be doable.
The length of a full-time PhD is around three to four years in most countries (it's longer in for a PhD in the USA , but you don't spend all that time doing research).
Three years may seem like a long time, but researching a PhD is a lot of work and you'll probably spend at least some of your time on other activities like teaching, conference presentations or even publication.
So, one of the things your proposal needs to do is demonstrate that your project is feasible: that it fits within the scope of a PhD.
The most important criteria for this is to be clear about what you plan to do. It should be obvious from your proposal what the scope of your project is – what is and isn't included within it.
You also need to outline how you plan to go about your research. Where will you start and what order do you expect to proceed in? Is the logic for that obvious? If not, it's probably a good idea to explain it.
Finally, you need to explain the methodology you plan to use. This could include techniques for collecting data and sources, theoretical perspectives for analysing them – or both. You may also need to detail specific equipment you expect to use or fieldwork you'll need to undertake (including trips to archives or other external resources).
None of this needs to be exact or completely final. The key word here is 'plan' – but you do need to have one.
So far we've thought about the project itself: what makes it worth doing and how it's going to get done. But your proposal also needs to address the who and the where: why are you the right person to carry out this research, and why do you want to do it at this particular university?
The first part of this is easier than it probably looks. Writing a good research proposal demonstrates enthusiasm for your project much more convincingly than simply saying you're very interested in it (a classic case of 'show, don't tell').
You also don't need to repeat your grades and academic achievements (other parts of your PhD application will cover those). Instead, try to underline experiences that relate to this project. Has a particular module or Masters dissertation topic prepared you with useful subject knowledge or methodological skills? If so, highlight it.
It's also fine, within reason, to be honest about the skills you don't have and to identify your training needs. This shows you're being practical about your project and thinking seriously about what it will require. Just make sure you can realistically acquire the skills and training you need within the time available (this goes back to the feasibility).
Showing your project is a good fit for the university is also relatively simple. There should already be some reasons why you've chosen this university for your PhD so make sure you explain what they are. Perhaps there's a particular supervisor you'd like to work with , or facilities and resources your research could use. The key is to emphasise the fit between the project and the university – so don't just say you want to research there because it's highly ranked .
Hopefully the above sections have given you a few ideas for the things your proposal needs to include. Let's be honest though, the scariest thing about a proposal isn't deciding what to include: it's actually writing it.
But, if we flip that on its head, we remember that all a research proposal really is is a piece of writing that follows a pretty standard format. And that's a lot less scary.
Because proposals for PhD all have to do the same things, they mostly follow a similar structure. Yours will probably go something like this:
You probably won't need to include a specific conclusion - it should be obvious, by now, what your project is doing, how you're going to do it and why that matters. A quick summary sentence is fine though, if you think it will help.
Being able to effectively communicate academic concepts, ideas and results is a key skill for PhD research in all subjects . Think of your proposal as a chance to demonstrate this.
The good news is that the key principles of good proposal writing aren't that different from other work you've probably done as a Bachelors or Masters student:
Honestly? As long as the university asks for it to be. Most will have guidelines and you should follow them closely if so.
If you honestly can't find a suggested word count for your proposal, then consider asking a prospective supervisor . If you still aren't sure, aim for somewhere between 1,000-2,000 words .
As a very general rule, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are a bit longer than STEM proposals (and a lot of STEM students don't have to write one anyway, as we've explained).
Research proposals are a popular topic over on the FindAPhD blog , where we've shared stories of how students wrote theirs , along with mistakes to avoid and a counter-intuitive look at the things a PhD proposal doesn't actually need to do .
Here are a few general tips and mistakes to avoid:
Preparing to write a PhD proposal takes time and effort. None of this is wasted as the process of evaluating and framing your ideas for a proposal will improve your project plan immensely. So will the need to decide which ideas to include.
But you need time and space to do that, so make sure you get it. How long it will take to write your PhD proposal is heavily dependent on your personal working style, but you'll likely need to give yourself at least a few weeks to do a good job.
A good proposal isn't a begging letter. You're approaching the university with a great idea that's going to contribute to and enhance their research. Be honest, be realistic, but don't be unnecessarily humble. They should want you and your project.
You may not need to present original research findings yet, but your proposal does need to present original ideas – and it should be clear why and how those ideas are original.
Make sure you indicate how your project is going to expand, enhance or even correct existing work in your field. Remember that making an "original contribution to knowledge" is a key part of what a PhD is .
A good proposal needs to explain why you want to do your research at a particular university. That's a big part of the feasibility (the fit between project, person and place) and methodology (how are you going to use this university's equipment and archives; when and where will you need to travel).
It's OK to apply to more than one university in parallel, but, in that case, you're writing research proposals .
It can be tempting to search for PhD proposal samples on the internet, but make sure you evaluate what you find. Some websites may host old proposals from previous PhD students, but there's no way of knowing how relevant these are to your subject and university – or if they were even successful! More 'generic' research proposal examples can offer guidance, but they won't be tailored to your specific project.
The best place to look for a PhD proposal sample is your university. Consider asking your supervisor if they can share a good proposal from a previous student in your subject – or put you in touch with a current student you can ask.
We've covered this on the blog , but it's simple enough to include here too.
You're setting out to do a PhD, but you (probably!) haven't done one yet. So you don't need to include research findings, in-depth analysis or a comprehesive literature review. You need to make a case for the research and analysis you want to do.
The advice on this page is necessarily quite general. We're considering adding guides to writing PhD proposals in specific subjects in future but, for now, the best place to get specific advice for your academic field is probably the university you're applying to.
See if you can get some subject-specific tips by contacting a supervisor , or just checking with the admissions team for your department.
And remember: if they give you a structure and a word count, stick to it.
Find out what PhD opportunities are currently available with our FindAPhD course listings .
Mark bennett.
Mark joined FindAPhD to develop our first ever advice articles in 2013 and now serves as our Director of Audience & Editorial, making sure our websites and information are as useful as possible for people thinking about Masters and PhD study. He has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Sheffield, as well as Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Kent and the University of South Wales.
We've answered some of the most frequently asked questions about PhDs, covering course types, applications, funding and the benefits of further study.
Getting ready to apply for a PhD? Our guides explain research proposals, references and entry tests for doctoral programmes.
Our guide explains how to contact a potential PhD supervisor to discuss your proposal or ideas with them before applying.
A checklist of the things you'll need to do when making an international PhD application, from meeting the entry requirements to sorting out your visa.
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In this section
Writing a research proposal
If your supervisor asks you to formalise your idea as a research proposal (this is not always a requirement) this needs to define a clear research question.
You should also be prepared to explain how this contributes to and develops (or challenges) any existing theories in the field.
It’s important to tailor your proposal to the department you’re applying to.
Different departments may also have different format requirements (e.g. word limit, content) so it’s important to discuss these with your potential supervisor in advance.
For more general advice on how to write a good proposal, see FindaPhd.com .
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Affiliation Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
Affiliation Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
Affiliation Division of Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation, and Cancer Biology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America
* E-mail: [email protected] (LM); [email protected] (CMB)
Affiliation Asian Liver Center and Department of Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
Affiliation Stanford Biosciences Grant Writing Academy, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
Published: July 14, 2016
Citation: Yuan K, Cai L, Ngok SP, Ma L, Botham CM (2016) Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Postdoctoral Fellowship. PLoS Comput Biol 12(7): e1004934. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004934
Editor: Fran Lewitter, Whitehead Institute, UNITED STATES
Copyright: © 2016 Yuan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: Dr. Ke Yuan is supported by American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant (15SDG25710448) and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Proof of Concept Award (SPO121940). Dr. Lei Cai is supported by Stanford Neuroscience Institute and NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellowship (1F32HL128094). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Postdoctoral fellowships support research, and frequently career development training, to enhance your potential to becoming a productive, independent investigator. Securing a fellowship sends a strong signal that you are capable of conducting fundable research and will likely lead to successes with larger grants. Writing a fellowship will also increase your productivity and impact because you will learn and refine skills necessary to articulate your research priorities. However, competition is fierce and your fellowship application needs to stand out among your peers as realistic, coherent, and compelling. Also, reviewers, a committee of experts and sometimes non-experts, will scrutinize your application, so anything less than polished may be quickly eliminated. We have drawn below ten tips from our experiences in securing postdoctoral fellowships to help as you successfully tackle your proposal.
Crafting a competitive fellowship can take 6–9 months, so it is imperative that you start early. You may even want to start looking for postdoctoral fellowships before you finish your doctoral degree. Compile a comprehensive list of fellowships that you can apply to. This list should include key information to organize your game plan for applying, including Sponsor (agency sponsoring the fellowship) name; URL for funding information; Sponsor deadlines; and any other requirements or critical information.
To find suitable fellowships, start by asking your faculty mentor(s), laboratory colleagues, and recent alumni about their experiences applying for fellowships. Federal agencies in the United States, such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF); foreign governmental agencies; and other organizations, such as societies, foundations, and associations, often solicit fellowship applications. Additionally, many institutions offer internally supported fellowships as well as institutional research training grants.
Once you have an exhaustive list of fellowships you are eligible for, start gathering critical information that you can use to inform your writing. Read the fellowship instructions completely and identify the review criteria. Investigate the review process; NIH’s Center for Scientific Review reviews grant applications for scientific merit and has a worthwhile video about the Peer Review Process [ 1 ]. Sometimes Sponsors offer notification alerts about upcoming funding opportunities, deadlines, and updated policies, so make sure to sign up for those when offered. Also, gather previously submitted applications and reviewers’ comments for the fellowships you will to apply to. Both funded and unfunded applications are useful. Sometimes Sponsors make available funded abstracts like NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT), and these provide critical information about the scope of funded projects.
Many institutions have internal policies and processes that are required before a proposal can be submitted to a Sponsor. These requirements can include waivers to assess eligibility and internal deadlines (five business day internal deadlines are standard), so make sure you also gather relevant information about any internal policies and processes required by your institution.
Writing a compelling fellowship takes time, a lot of time, which is challenging to balance with a hectic laboratory schedule, other responsibilities, and family obligations. To reduce stress, divide the fellowship requirements into smaller tasks by creating a detailed timeline with goals or milestones. Having a game plan with daily and/or weekly goals will also help you avoid procrastination. Make sure you are writing regularly (i.e., daily or every other day) to establish an effective writing practice. This will increase your productivity and reduce your anxiety because writing will become a habit. It is also important to make your writing time non-negotiable so other obligations or distractions don’t impede your progress.
It is crucial that you have a deep awareness of your field so you can identify critical knowledge gaps that will significantly move your field forward when filled. Keep a list of questions or problems inherent to your field and update this list after reading germane peer-reviewed and review articles or attending seminars and conferences. Narrow down and focus your list through discussions with your mentor(s), key researchers in your field, and colleagues. Because compelling projects often combine two seemingly unrelated threads of work to challenge and shift the current research or clinical practice paradigms, it is important to have a broad familiarity with the wider scientific community as well. Seek opportunities to attend seminars on diverse topics, speak with experts, and read broadly the scientific literature. Relentlessly contemplate how concepts and approaches in the wider scientific community could be extended to address critical knowledge gaps in your field. Furthermore, develop a few of your research questions by crafting hypotheses supported by the literature and/or preliminary data. Again, share your ideas with others, i.e., mentor(s), other scientists, and colleagues, to gauge interest in the significance and innovation of the proposed ideas. Remember, because your focus is on writing a compelling fellowship, make sure your research questions are also relevant and appropriate for the missions of the sponsoring agencies.
A perfectly crafted Specific Aims document, usually a one-page description of your plan during the project period, is crucial for a compelling fellowship because your reviewers will read it! In fact, it is very likely your Specific Aims will be the first document your reviewers will read, so it is vital to fully engage the reviewers’ interest and desire to keep reading. The Specific Aims document must concisely answer the following questions:
A draft of your Specific Aims document is ideal for eliciting feedback from your mentor(s) and colleagues because evaluating a one-page document is not an enormous time investment on part of the person giving you feedback. Plus, you don’t want to invest time writing a full proposal without knowing the proposal’s conceptual framework is compelling. When you are ready to write the research plan, your Specific Aims document then provides a useful roadmap.
As you are writing (and rewriting) your Specific Aims document, it is essential to integrate the Sponsor’s goals for that fellowship funding opportunity. Often goals for a fellowship application include increasing the awardee’s potential for becoming an independent investigator, in which case an appropriate expected outcome might be that you mature into an independent investigator.
We recommend reading The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook ( www.grantcentral.com ) [ 2 ] because it has two helpful chapters on how to write a persuasive Specific Aims document, as well as other instructive chapters. Although a little formulaic, the Workbook’s approach ensures the conceptual framework of your Specific Aims document is solid. We also advise reading a diverse repertoire of Specific Aims documents to unearth your own style for this document.
Fellowship applications often support mentored training experiences; therefore, a strong mentoring team is essential. Remember, reviewers often evaluate the qualifications and appropriateness of your mentoring team. The leader of your mentoring team should have a track record of mentoring individuals at similar stages as your own as well as research qualifications appropriate for your interests. Reviewers will also often consider if your mentor can adequately support the proposed research and training because fellowship applications don’t always provide sufficient funds. It is also useful to propose a co-mentor who complements your mentor’s qualifications and experiences. You should also seek out other mentors at your institution and elsewhere to guide and support your training. These mentors could form an advisory committee, which is required for some funding opportunities, to assist in your training and monitor your progress. In summary, a first-rate mentoring team will reflect the various features of your fellowship, including mentors who augment your research training by enhancing your technical skills as well as mentors who support your professional development and career planning.
As you develop your fellowship proposal, meet regularly with your mentors to elicit feedback on your ideas and drafts. Your mentors should provide feedback on several iterations of your Specific Aims document and contribute to strengthening it. Recruit mentors to your team who will also invest in reading and providing feedback on your entire fellowship as an internal review before the fellowship’s due date.
You also want to maintain and cultivate relationships with prior mentors, advisors, or colleagues because fellowships often require three to five letters of reference. A weak or poorly written letter will negatively affect your proposal’s fundability, so make sure your referees will write a strong letter of recommendation and highlight your specific capabilities.
Most fellowships support applicants engaged in training to enhance their development into a productive independent researcher. Training often includes both mentored activities, e.g., regular meetings with your mentor(s), as well as professional activities, e.g., courses and seminars. It is important that you describe a complete training plan and justify the need for each training activity based on your background and career goals.
When developing this plan, it is helpful to think deeply about your training needs. What skills or experiences are missing from your background but needed for your next career stage? Try to identify three to five training goals for your fellowship and organize your plan with these goals in mind. Below are sample activities:
Feedback is critical to developing a first-class proposal. You need a wide audience providing feedback because your reviewers will likely come from diverse backgrounds as well. Be proactive in asking for feedback from your mentor, colleagues, and peers. Even non-scientists can provide critical advice about the clarity of your writing. When eliciting feedback, inform your reviewer of your specific needs, i.e., you desire broader feedback on overall concepts and feasibility or want advice on grammar and spelling. You may also consider hiring a professional editing and proofreading service to polish your writing.
Some fellowships have program staff, such as the NIH Program Officers, who can advise prospective applicants. These individuals can provide essential information and feedback about the programmatic relevance of your proposal to the Sponsor’s goals for that specific fellowship application. Approaching a Program Officer can be daunting, but reading the article “What to Say—and Not Say—to Program Officers” can help ease your anxiety [ 3 ].
Fellowship applications are often composed of numerous documents or sections. Therefore, it is important that all your documents tell a consistent and cohesive story. For example, you might state your long term goal in the Specific Aims document and personal statement of your biosketch, then elaborate on your long term goal in a career goals document, so each of these documents must tell a consistent story. Similarly, your research must be described consistently in your abstract, Specific Aims, and research strategy documents. It is important to allow at least one to two weeks of time after composing the entire application to review and scrutinize the story you tell to ensure it is consistent and cohesive.
Each fellowship application has specific formats and page requirements that must be strictly followed. Keep these instructions and the review criteria close at hand when writing and revising. Applications that do not conform to required formatting and other requirements might be administratively rejected before the review process, so meticulously follow all requirements and guidelines.
Proofread your almost final documents for errors and readability. Errors can be confusing to reviewers. Also, if the documents have many misspellings or grammar errors, your reviewers will question your ability to complete the proposed experiments with precision and accuracy. Remove or reduce any field-specific jargon or acronyms. Review the layout of your pages and make sure each figure or table is readable and well placed. Use instructive headings and figure titles that inform the reviewers of the significance of the next paragraph(s) or results. Use bolding or italics to stress key statements or ideas. Your final documents must be easy to read, but also pleasing, so your reviewers remain engaged.
Fellowships applications frequently have similar requirements, so it is fairly easy to recycle your application or submit it to several different funding opportunities. This can significantly increase your odds for success, especially if you are able to improve your application with each submission by tackling reviewers’ comments from a prior submission. However, some Sponsors limit concurrent applications to different funding opportunities, so read the instructions carefully.
Fellowship funding rates vary but, sadly, excellent fellowships may go unfunded. Although this rejection stings, resubmitted applications generally have a better success rate than original applications, so it is often worth resubmitting. However, resubmitting an application requires careful consideration of the reviewers’ comments and suggestions. If available, speak to your Program Officers because he or she may have listened to the reviewers’ discussion and can provide a unique prospective or crucial information not included in the reviewers’ written comments. Resubmitted fellowships are many times allowed an additional one- to two-page document to describe how you addressed the reviewers’ comments in the revised application, and this document needs to be clear and persuasive.
The ten tips we provide here will improve your chances of securing a fellowship and can be applied to other funding opportunity announcements like career development awards (i.e., NIH K Awards). Regardless of funding outcomes, writing a fellowship is an important career development activity because you will learn and refine skills that will enhance your training.
From the recent past
Early Career Research: Japan to Britain and Back
It's been a while since I've posted here, but all good news: I've landed a tenured associate professorship at a national university (=research-focused) in Japan! It was not only my main aim when I started this blog, but a major life goal since I was a child. To celebrate, I wanted to talk about my post-doc journey. I was in two post-docs, Shanghai from January-September 2019 (write-up), and Edinburgh from September 2019-2021. At the tail-end of my PhD, I was furiously applying for next positions while sending out my first article to the Social History of Medicine, writing up my dissertation and preparing for the viva. I'll do an Early Career Researcher advice post later on, talking about writing chapters, sending out articles, deciding on your viva panel, how to decide which chapters would work as an article, etc., when I'm more settled in my new position: I'm still figuring out the balance between research, teaching, supervising, and administrative duties! For today's post, I want to talk about drafting the post-doc project.
The usual careers advice applies, so I won't bore you with them. Yes, please check your word count, follow the guidance, network and all that. If someone points you to a job post, go for it. One thing about the UK and perhaps this applies elsewhere: you are usually going to be a post-doc on a team of an established professor's grant, so brainstorm a project topic-wise wherein you, the lead Principal Investigator (PI-sounds like a crime scene) and the team are going to be a good match.
My main advice is to make the postdoc a statement about who you are after your PhD. You probably already know that it needs to have its own identity, and be a step above in terms of ambition and scope from what you achieved in your PhD. Your PhD is for figuring out the tools of the trade and understanding who you are as a thinker/research. Your tenured professorship is for representing the institution as a public figure and being a leading researcher in your field. A post-doc is in between that; think of it as training for your permanent position (whether in academia or not).
The post-doc research question expands on the PhD's and should feel wiser and deeper. Build upon your PhD findings to ask questions about bigger themes and theories. The method and data gathering process, if possible in COVID, should also be a step above: if you sat in archives in your home country, propose to do oral history interviews or fieldwork abroad. Or expand the kinds of conferences and networks you will develop, or the way you will communicate your research findings, ie: via social media. And most importantly, outputs: of course you don't know whether your article from the post-doc will be accepted before you've even got the job, but you want to be the kind of researcher who plans to do a solid stint of research, followed by a solid stint of outputting your thoughts from that research.
All this sounds wooly without an example, so I've attached a proposal I actually never had the chance to do. It was on civil society in India after the Emergency, which I really wanted to know about since my first paper was on Indian AIDS NGOs: so, kind of a pre-history of my first journal article (and one of my PhD chapters). It was for a wonderful project called 'Rethinking Civil Society' run by a historian of political thought at a university in the north of England. I was shortlisted as an alternate but ultimately didn't get it (cried like Mei from Totoro!). Instead, I proposed projects on international drug control to Shanghai and later Edinburgh, which turned out to be the right career decision in terms of networking, though the job I was shortlisted for got back to me later to ask if I was still available. We can talk about managing your emotions and stress during the job search process in another post.
Some takeaway points I would advise in drafting the post-doc project are: make a timescale of data gathering and outputs, including conferences and articles. Showing you can manage time, funds and outputs is good practice anyway for when you are applying for grants as PI. The person reading your application will likely know very little about the topic, so introduce it well but with depth: imagine someone saying, I didn't know anything about this before, but I got it after I read your proposal. Finally, make sure you understand the PI: how do they think as a researcher, what kinds of data do they draw from, what themes and questions are they interested in? And frame the project as contributing to but also building upon and enriching that.
I plan to be applying for grants for new research projects by the new academic year (this is when the semester begins in Japan), but for now, I'm finishing off bits of work from my previous positions. Good news I hope to be sharing with you soon: a couple journal article acceptances, a few more in the works and a book! Oh and my third peer-reviewed article came out recently :) check it out here! https://isiscb.org/special-issue-on-pandemics/essay.html?essayID=16
Drink tea and enjoy the changing of the leaves - autumn is such a cozy time!
Historical Method: Research at the Archives of the Reserve Bank of India on the 1991 BOP crisis
My Research Stay in Switzerland, Pt. 2: One Last Chapter
Some Reflections: GSID’s 30th Anniversary and MJHW 11 Feb. 2022 Presentation
Guidelines on preparing a thesis proposal to support your application.
These guidelines are intended to assist you in developing and writing a thesis proposal. Applications for admission to a research degree cannot be dealt with unless they contain a proposal.
Your proposal will help us to make sure that:
The process of producing a proposal is usually also essential if you need to apply for funding to pay your fees or support yourself whilst doing your research. Funding bodies will often need to be reassured that you are committed to a viable project at a suitable university.
Your proposal should be typed double-spaced, if possible, and be between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Your PhD proposal can be added under the 'Supporting Documents' section of the Postgraduate Applications Online System .
Your proposal should contain at least the following elements:
For more detailed information on each element of your research proposal, see our extended guidance document .
Examples of Successful PhD Proposals
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Creating a focused and well-written research proposal - a concise and coherent summary of your proposed research - is an essential part of a successful PhD application.
A research proposal is normally required for self-funded PhDs (where you develop your own idea for a thesis), but isn't usually needed for funded studentships or pre-defined research projects.
A research proposal sets out the central issues or questions that you intend to address. It outlines the general area of study within which your research falls, referring to the current state of knowledge and any recent debates on the topic. It should also demonstrate the originality of your proposed research.
As a guide, research proposals should be around 2,000-3,000 words and contain:
Crucially, it is also an opportunity for you to communicate your passion for the subject area and to make a persuasive argument about the impact your project can achieve.
Your research proposal will be assessed by our academic schools to assess the quality of your proposed research and to establish whether they have the expertise to support your proposed area of PhD study.
The University’s English Language Centre (ELC) provides thesis writing support for international PhD students. Classes run throughout semesters one and two and are designed to help develop the academic writing skills needed to write up research effectively.
The sessions are taught by tutors with their own research experience. They have PhDs themselves and have many years of experience in analysing writing in different disciplines.
The course also provides an opportunity for students to receive individual feedback on samples of their own writing.
The following classes are available:
In addition to these thesis writing classes, the ELC also provides a 1:1 Academic Writing Consultation service.
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This is not going to be a specific question and may be off-topic for this site: I'm looking for advice, tips, or a template for writing a fellowship proposal.
I'm in my first computer science postdoc, in the UK, and have been encouraged to to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship in the US.
However, I have no idea what a fellowship proposal should look like. I been reading online and it looks like there are 3 basic components: the abstract, the main/body text, and a 'bigger picture' closing paragraph/summary.
For now, I am mostly concerned with what should go into the main/body text. As I understand it, this sectino should describe:
Does that sound right? Any tips or even better, an example application that I can look at?
For each fellowship look carefully at the the information provided in the announcement for the that fellowship. While the core part of your proposal might be the same for each individual fellowship, do not try to write one proposal for all the available positions.
You know why you want a postdoc specifically at University X. Make sure you explain appropriate reasons clearly.
You probably have a pretty good idea what your qualifications are for the position at University X. These qualifications may be similar for all your proposals, perhaps with emphasis on how you think your qualifications are particularly strong for the CS Dept. at University X.
Now for the aspect in which many proposals fall short. What are the reasons the Department or specific people in the department might be particularly interested in you? You should provide clues. Why does the department offer postdoc positions at all? If you read the announcement from University X carefully, you may find that they have given clues.
Writing this proposal is worth special attention. Looking back many years to where I got my doctoral degree and where I did my postd0c, I think it is fair to say the latter had the major impact on my career.
Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged united-states funding postdocs writing ..
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Speaker 1: Hello, everyone. Today we'll talk about preparation of a research grant. The research that you have done today has been organized by your PhD supervisor or your principal investigator, your team leader. So they actually applied for the research. They got the grant and you're employed to work on that. However, if you're working and advancing well in your PhD, sooner than later, you will have to write your own research proposal. Especially if you want to apply for a research grant or a fellowship, or if you want to apply for another job, you will have to demonstrate that you can write your own research. Before you put pen to paper or even consider applying for a research grant, there are a number of questions that you need to ask yourself. If you are satisfied with your answers, then you need to think about considering applying for a grant. It is important to understand that committing to writing a grant is a big thing. Grants are extremely competitive. They need a lot of preparation, a lot of work, talking to others, developing the idea, expanding on that, writing the methodology, polishing again and again. You have to be committed that you want to actually go through that route. Also, one of the questions that you need to make yourself is, is it worth it? Do I really need to get that grant in order to do the research? You should certainly think about the planned research funding application in the whole context of your professional career, as you don't always need to get money to do your research. So there are a few further questions that you need to ask yourself before even considering writing a research grant. What is the relationship between your aspirations to do research and the availability of funding? Why are you applying for funding? Why do you need funding? What is the minimum funding you need to ensure the success of the research project you're asking to be funded? When you are satisfied with your answers to these questions and you understand that applying for a research grant is a major task, it will take a lot of time, only then you should start to prepare your application. It is essential that you are really, really believing in the proposed idea and the potential of doing research in this area. So in that case, you can also convince your peers. If you don't believe in it, don't even consider applying for a grant. That's the main difference between papers and grants. Until now, I've spoken a lot about writing papers. There, you don't really need to convince anyone about your research. You're doing the research and you're presenting it in a good way. Here, there is no research. You need to convince the reviewers of your grant that this is a legitimate, this is a very good idea. There is a methodology. It's a challenging problem, but it can be solved. On top of that, you need to show to the reviewers that you need a significant amount of money in order to do that research. You need resources and those resources, they better go to you rather than to someone else in another institution. So it's kind of a competition that you have to indirectly present and that you are the best person in order to find the solution for that very, very significant problem. In other words, you need to put down a very convincing business case. Other questions that you should answer is, why now? Why yourself and your institution? What kind of resources do you have? Not only the skills and expertise, but also the resources. What is going to happen if that significant problem is not solved? What are going to be likely the follow-up problems if this is solved and where the industry will head after that being solved? So now you need money and you need to find where you can get this money from. That's a very tricky task. Most countries, they have national agencies and funding bodies that they support the research within the country. There is a German research agency, DFT, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the National Science Council of Taiwan, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the British Research Councils and the US NSF, as well as the National Institute of Health. Usually their websites and portals are very comprehensive, so you can find all sorts of calls, specific project calls, as well as other ways to submit your proposed idea. Maybe it's not a call, it's just that you can make submissions any time throughout the year. Here in the UK, we call them standard mode. There are also funding agencies that they support multi-country research programs. Perhaps the largest of these is the European Commission, the European Union's program and the European Commission, where all countries in Europe, as well as some other countries outside Europe, are welcome to put up collaborative applications. But the question you need to ask yourself again is that do you really need that much money to do your research? In the early stages of the career, perhaps you need a smaller budget, maybe something which is internal within your institutions and that will enable the collaboration internally as well as externally. Generally, they will support some sort of like workshops and seminars, maybe a few presentations or you're traveling around, going meeting people and nurturing relationships as well as develop those ideas. So smaller funding can do the job and you can do brilliant with that. As you get along, you will need to get into the more prestigious funding, which again, not always is very big, but it is significant in order to be able to initiate your work. So you have a postdoc or you have a PhD student and you can spend a year or more and you can work with them into really shaping the ideas and developing your research program. Starting from a small scale, doing good research, excellent quality of research and seeing that as a stepping stone to something much bigger. The good thing about small grants is that you're not overburdened into the bureaucracy of the grant. So you don't really have to submit a hundred reports back. You don't have to spend so much time in managing the grant, the financial side of the things as well as the managerial side of the things. You can focus more on the research you have one or two people working with and you can do research yourself as well. So a lot of times we as academics, we go through that question ourselves. We need to make sure that we're asking the money, not for the sake of getting a grant, but actually doing something with that grant. So a lot of times we're just focusing on building large consortia or trying to get the funding just for the sake of it. What is important is to look at what you really need in order to do that research. At the end of the day, that is something that will be questioned by the reviewers anyway. So if they feel that your research doesn't need that much money to be conducted, then they will not really fund the program. So in that case, you either go for something smaller or perhaps you can actually expand on the research idea and bring more collaborators. Now, independent if it's a small application or a much bigger application, there is a procedure that you need to do in order to ensure that your application is of good quality and it's done some success. In other words, it's as competitive as possible. So having decided that you are going to go for an application, what I advise you is first to just write a hundred words of a summary for the idea. Just write that summary. You will find it quite difficult at the beginning, but only a hundred words. So only the interesting stuff. Write it, polish it again and again and again, and then give it to a few of your colleagues, a few of your friends, just to read it and ask for feedback. If you're a PhD student, of course, you can send it out to your supervisor or your mentor and again seek for feedback. The most important questions here is what is the aim of the project for that given time and what will be the deliverables at the end of the project. Of course, these need to be highlighted clearly in those 100 words summary. You should be as realistic as possible here. You don't really want to overstate your research. You don't want to undermine it. You definitely want to write the good things and that it will have a clear impact to the industry or to the academia, to the research world. But you don't really want to overpromise things. Things that most probably your reviewer will soon realize that they are not possible to be done, so you will be rejected. So make sure that the tone you're using, the way that you elaborate and you're explaining things is the appropriate, is really clear and you are not really overpromising, but it is an ambitious project. Also, another very important thing that you have to think about at that very early on stage is whether you will be doing the research alone or you will be having a co-investigator within your department or in another university. You have to subcontract some work. So think about who is actually going to do the research. Of course, it's very different if you're going to be the fellow of doing the research or you're going to get the money to employ someone else to do the research or is a collaborating project. Of course, this video is mostly focusing on you guys, the PhD students who are about to write the first grant. So you will be the fellow who's actually going to do the research. You will be the postdoc who is going to do the research after if this is successful. Another thing that you should look very carefully is whether those fellowship applications, they clearly say that they're evaluating the fellowship based on the CV, on the track record of the applicant. It's not happening in all cases, but in most cases when you're applying for a personal fellowship and it's not just a collaborative project that we can discuss in another video, then you will have to have a very strong track record. So at that point, if you believe that the idea that you're about to apply doesn't really correlate much with your existing research and your existing research is not there yet, then you better avoid it. You better first build your research, write a few good papers, publish them, and then thinking about applying for that fellowship. Or you will have to tune your research, make it more appropriate and applicable for your expertise. So it is important to make sure that what you will be doing, it is extending your research. Maybe it's a step change into your research, but at the same time, it's kind of complimentary. There is a continuity there. It's not that you're leaving back whatever you've done so far and you're starting something new. It doesn't work like that. It has to be some sort of incremental, sequential sort of move from where you are at the moment and where you want to go. That's fine if it's an ambitious project. That's absolutely fine. But you need to actually show that the skills that you have developed already can be used for that project later on. So that will reduce the risk of you failing completing the tasks of the project. I'm sure that your supervisor and mentors can actually help you a lot with that because they can see whether your expertise, your knowledge is really related to the idea that you're applying. What we're trying to do is to shape the idea based on the fellow's expertise. So if you decide to go for that application, I would advise you to work very closely with your supervisor or the potential supervisor who is going to be the host of your fellowship at that institution. So work together as much as possible and get lifted by their experience, their expertise and their good track in grant applications. If there is a possibility that you can publish before the application with those potential supervisors, in most cases it works well. Let me clarify that. There are grants that you should not have any relationship with the supervisor before you apply for that fellowship at that institution. But these are very few. In most cases, what they want to see, the panel, the reviewers I mean, is that you are bringing a different expertise. The supervisors got a different expertise. But these two together, they are very complementary and it is what is needed in order to succeed with the project. So if you have shown that you have already collaborated with that supervisor and you've published together a few papers, then that really strengthens your position as an applicant. At the end of the day, if you have worked with that supervisor before, even for another application that the supervisor has made in another grant, maybe a collaborative grant, that is going to be extremely good for you because you're learning at the same time, not only the way to write grants, but also how the potential supervisor is working. You get that experience of collaborating and that will help you a lot for writing your own grant. So after you have considered all these and you've checked the list with all the available calls out there, as well as the next available submission deadlines for calls and other grant applications, now is the best time to think about which one that you will tackle. Some of them are pretty similar. So you may be thinking of putting an application in the most appropriate one. And then if it's not successful, you will take back the application, you will take the feedback if there is any, if you're lucky and there is any, and you will make another application, you will prepare, polish it, improve it and submit it somewhere else. So let's say now that you've picked your agent, the most important thing now is to see what is this agent, this funding body's directives, what is the aim, what are the themes that they're supporting and where they are strategically funding. So that will help you a lot to go back to your idea and shape it correctly, as well as use some keywords throughout your application. There is very little point of applying for a grant in a particular funding body that is not really supporting that type of research. So say you are doing research on mechanical engineering and additive manufacturing and you're applying in a funding body that supports more kind of interdisciplinary research where there is a combination of social sciences and applied sciences. So that is most probably a bad idea. So you should be very specific with what are the themes that this funder is strategically supporting. This information is usually laid out at the very beginning of their websites, but in some cases you will need to scrutinise a little bit more to find exactly what they're supporting, what they're heading to. SEI Valve funding created to support researchers in the pre-award stage. It can help you analyse the funding environment. You can access award data for funding performance measurement, evaluation and strategic planning. Learn what publications are linked to certain funding programmes. Gain insight into funding history to see what researchers and what research they have done in the past and they received funding and find collaborators and learn about potential competitors. But don't miss the opportunity to visit their website and seek about information for different kinds of grants. So there's plenty of applications that are submitted all the time and they must follow their criteria. So there are mechanisms within the funding bodies that they will quickly select those applications that meet the requirements and unfortunately the rest will be just overlooked. So when you start writing your application, make sure that you have the assessment criteria also inside at all times and you're looking at these assessment criteria while you're writing your application. That will help you a lot to stay focused and actually see what the evaluators will be judging your application against. Lastly, make sure that the proposal is formatted as best as possible, does not have spelling and grammatical mistakes. If you have any previous grants, even if you are not the PI, the Principal Investigator or the Co-I but you're working for that grant, you can show that the grant was moving smoothly and nicely. So if there is any success, you can demonstrate that success and that guarantees your success in this project as well. If you manage to strategically use those guidelines and answer the correct questions as I've laid out earlier, you will manage to have a very competitive application. Nobody can guarantee you that the application will go through and you will be successful, but with a great research question that can be answered and in specific can be answered by you, with a very well written report, all inclusive and with a project that fits very nicely the criteria of that funding body, you stand a lot of chances to have a very successful grant application. We will have another video later on where we will describe all the different steps that you need to undertake when you're writing a collaborative project with other partners within or outside your institution or even a multi-country grant where you need to bring a lot of partners from different countries, including both academia and research. These are far more complicated and they don't only have to do with the type of the research, but also how the consortium will move all together. If you find this information useful, please hit the like button and if you have any questions or comments, please write them down below. I will be very happy to respond to those. I know that grant writing is a big story, it's difficult, it's taking time and it's really hard to say at any time that you're mastering that because you never know what's going to happen with a research grant application. So please consider those guidelines and keep on watching these videos for more information. Until next time, bye bye.
Biosketch format pages, instructions, and samples.
A biographical sketch (also referred to as biosketch) documents an individual's qualifications and experience for a specific role in a project. NIH requires submission of a biosketch for each proposed senior/key personnel and other significant contributor on a grant application. Some funding opportunities or programs may also request biosketches for additional personnel (e.g., Participating Faculty Biosketch attachment for institutional training awards). Applicants and recipients are required to submit biosketches
NIH staff and peer reviewers utilize the biosketch to ensure that individuals included on the applications are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research. NIH biosketches must conform to a specific format. Applicants and recipients can use the provided format pages to prepare their biosketch attachments or can use SciENcv , a tool used to develop and automatically format biosketches according to NIH requirements.
Biosketch (non-fellowship): biographical sketch format page - forms-h.
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Costs include: AAG: Return flight to Washington DC: £450 Four nights' accommodation in Washington DC: £280 Conference Fee: £300 ($420) o conference from within London: £25 Conference Fee: £305FieldworkThe development of two new research case studies is an important part of the fellowship as it provides the dat.
Show why you are the right person to do this research; Examples of research proposals. Research Proposal Example 1 (DOC, 49kB) Research Proposal Example 2 (DOC, 0.9MB) Research Proposal Example 3 (DOC, 55.5kB) Research Proposal Example 4 (DOC, 49.5kB) Subject specific guidance. Writing a Humanities PhD Proposal (PDF, 0.1MB) Writing a Creative ...
der and set the context of your proposed research. Get your reader's attention early on and do n. t waste space with obvious and general statements. The introduction is your opportunity to demonstrate that your research has not been done before and that the proposed project will really ad.
A postdoctoral research proposal is an important document that can help you secure funding, support, and a position at a university or research institution. In this blog post, we will provide a guide to writing a postdoctoral research proposal, as well as a template to help you get started. The purpose of a postdoctoral research proposal is to ...
NSF and Ford. NSF funds some postdoctoral fellowships (see specific programs) and research grants. Ford: "The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of ...
It's worth considering how your own research compares and contrasts with the existing research on the topic. Make sure you give the impression that your project is exciting and will make a new contribution to the field. The main body of the proposal goes into details about your aims and methodology, and exactly how you will carry out the project.
Therefore, in a good research proposal you will need to demonstrate two main things: 1. that you are capable of independent critical thinking and analysis. 2. that you are capable of communicating your ideas clearly. Applying for a PhD is like applying for a job, you are not applying for a taught programme.
Research proposal examples. Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We've included a few for you below. Example research proposal #1: "A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management" Example research proposal #2: "Medical Students as Mediators of ...
Make sure you can ask the critical what, who, and how questions of your research before you put pen to paper. Your research proposal should include (at least) 5 essential components: Title - provides the first taste of your research, in broad terms. Introduction - explains what you'll be researching in more detail.
Guidance for PhD applicants Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. The 1,500 word research proposal is an important element of your application to doctoral study, whether full-time or part-time. It offers you the opportunity to outline the research you intend to conduct, including how you plan to go about it, and how your research might ...
Your research proposal is a concise statement (up to 3,000 words) of the rationale for your research proposal, the research questions to be answered and how you propose to address them. We know that during the early stages of your PhD you are likely to refine your thinking and methodology in discussion with your supervisors. However, we want to ...
Postdoctoral fellowships can solve many of these problems because they provide the freedom to choose the research topic, PI, and/or location (though these details often need to be declared before submitting an application). Of course, the odds of receiving postdoctoral fellowships are not high (typically single digit percentages).
Research proposals are significant because it formally outlines your intended research. You need to provide details on how you will go about your research, including: your approach and methodology. timeline and feasibility. all other considerations needed to progress your research, such as resources. Think of it as a tool that will help you ...
Written by Mark Bennett. You'll need to write a research proposal if you're submitting your own project plan as part of a PhD application. A good PhD proposal outlines the scope and significance of your topic and explains how you plan to research it. It's helpful to think about the proposal like this: if the rest of your application explains ...
A PhD proposal is an outline of your proposed project. It needs to: Define a clear question and approach to answering it. Highlight its originality and/or significance. Explain how it adds to, develops (or challenges) existing literature in the field. Persuade potential supervisors of the importance of the work, and why you are the right person ...
Writing a research proposal. If your supervisor asks you to formalise your idea as a research proposal (this is not always a requirement) this needs to define a clear research question. You should also be prepared to explain how this contributes to and develops (or challenges) any existing theories in the field. It's important to tailor your ...
Rule 1: Start Early and Gather Critical Information. Crafting a competitive fellowship can take 6-9 months, so it is imperative that you start early. You may even want to start looking for postdoctoral fellowships before you finish your doctoral degree. Compile a comprehensive list of fellowships that you can apply to.
The post-doc research question expands on the PhD's and should feel wiser and deeper. Build upon your PhD findings to ask questions about bigger themes and theories. The method and data gathering process, if possible in COVID, should also be a step above: if you sat in archives in your home country, propose to do oral history interviews or ...
The research proposal - an outline. Your proposal should be typed double-spaced, if possible, and be between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Your PhD proposal can be added under the 'Supporting Documents' section of the Postgraduate Applications Online System. Your proposal should contain at least the following elements:
As a guide, research proposals should be around 2,000-3,000 words and contain: A title - this is just tentative and can be revised over the course of your research. An abstract - a concise statement of your intended research. Context - a brief overview of the general area of study within which your proposed research falls, summarising the ...
While the core part of your proposal might be the same for each individual fellowship, do not try to write one proposal for all the available positions. You know why you want a postdoc specifically at University X. Make sure you explain appropriate reasons clearly. You probably have a pretty good idea what your qualifications are for the ...
b. Table of content (to be written last) c. Abstract (to be written last): A concise summary of your project including the most important points. Please make sure your abstract is perfectly logic and coherent. Read abstracts in scientific journals to get familiar with the wording and the grammar in abstract writing. d.
Technical ReportPDF Available. Successful Example of Banting Postdoctoral Proposal (SSHRC) September 2016. Affiliation: Carleton University. Authors: Logan Cochrane. Hamad bin Khalifa University ...
However, if you're working and advancing well in your PhD, sooner than later, you will have to write your own research proposal. Especially if you want to apply for a research grant or a fellowship, or if you want to apply for another job, you will have to demonstrate that you can write your own research.
As the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, NIH supports a variety of programs from grants and contracts to loan repayment. ... each step in the grants process from planning to apply through developing and submitting your application to award and post-award reporting. Explore Grants Process. Plan to Apply; Write ...