Writing a preliminary research proposal

They are intended to help you conceptualize and prepare a research proposal, giving the process structure and a timetable for you to develop. When applying for a research grant or a study scholarship, you are expected to hand in a "detailed and precise description of study or research proposal as well as information on any previous study or research projects of particular relevance to a decision of award. The proposal is not a fixed blueprint.

By Jim Austin Jul. Just as rare are programs designed to help doctoral students and postdocs learn how to create a research plan. Which is too bad: Writing an effective research plan is tricky. And until now, there was little advice to be found. Opinions, after all, are not in short supply in the academy.

What is hard is finding advice you can rely on. Because we talked to a lot of people.

We interviewed and corresponded with faculty and research scientists who have served on hiring committees. All of our sources have experience; some of our sources have a lot of experience. We considered everything, filtered out the muck, and distilled it all down to a general strategy and a few simple principles, with a few variations on the theme thrown in for good measure.

As a consequence this piece, like the other tools in the tool kit, will remain fresh and useful when other resources have become dated and useless.

So, onward and upward From your immediate point of view, the purpose of a research plan is to help get you hired. The research plan, however, serves another, very important function: It contributes to your development as a scientist.

Your research plan is a map for your career as a research science professional. As will become apparent later in this document, one of the functions of a research plan is to demonstrate your intellectual vision and aspirations. Not yet on the job market?

Just starting out as a postdoc? Writing a research plan casts your gaze forward and prompts you to begin planning for when you have your own laboratory.

Think of it as a rough draft, a fantasy trip for your career. But never mind about that. Most of you are trying to get hired. In that case what matters is, what is the committee looking for?

Hiring committees desperately want to avoid making a serious mistake by investing institutional and intellectual capital in the wrong person. The aim of your research plan, then, as of the rest of your application, is to assure the hiring committee that life with you will be pain-free.

How do you do this? Provide the committee a compelling, reassuring, believable image of what their life will be like when you are working down the hall.

Tell them a story--a believable, credible story--about what your lab will be like 5 years from now: There are two parts to this: You have to tell a good story, and you have to make them believe it.

How do I tell a good story? First, choose an important subject. If the research you plan is not compelling, no rhetorical skill will make it compelling to a committee of smart scientists.

Note that there are two issues here: The goal of science may be to uncover truth, but uncovering objective truth is a very difficult thing to do, and doing it requires passion. Do another postdoc if you must.

Passion for your work is a necessary, but insufficient, condition for capturing the attention of hiring committees. After all, some people are passionate about, um, peculiar things.WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RESEARCH PROPOSAL Marja J.

Verhoef, PhD Robert J. Hilsden, MD MSc FRCPC Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences. Organizations invited to complete a formal grant application will be notified to that effect in writing following the review of all Preliminary Proposals. Some reporting guidelines are also available in languages other than English.

Find out more in our Translations section.. We have also translated some of our website pages into other languages. Definition of A Research Project Proposal. A research proposal is defined as, “A document that is typically written by a scientist or academic which describes the ideas for an investigation on a .

Nearly every applicant for a tenure-track faculty job is expected to include a research caninariojana.comions are rare.

Just as rare are programs designed to help doctoral students and postdocs learn. The goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted.

The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are governed by standards within the predominant discipline.