The importance of investment in research at universities is critical as this is the key to innovation and development of the knowledge pool, which further enables long-term economic growth with the creation of jobs and with an impact on society.
Research at Universities has often been the key driver of innovation and inventions that have driven progress, material, psychological, philosophical, indeed in all fields of human endeavorUniversities and professors play a fundamental role in raising funds from various sources both public and private for research and development of this knowledge pool that is subsequently passed on.
Hence while a substantial amount of funding is available from the various sources, each institution will invest in those students that are likely to give them the best return on sums being invested in R&D.
The idea of writing a research proposal can be daunting but hopefully by the end of this article, you will be off to a good start.
Depending on the university, the proposal can be anything from 800 - 2,000 words. If you are seeking funding of say $30,000, think of each word as valued at $200 each. Hence each word needs to be carefully thought through.
There is a lot of help available from the universities and on the websites. As a potential research student, you are going to be investing at least three years of your life in this field and hence this must be an area that you are passionate about, and that will have relevance and usefulness for society.
Before even commencing the proposal, a self-assessment of following criteria, are essential to have any chance of having funds allocated:
1. This must be original and innovative with the potential of introducing cutting edge ideas and form.
2. Ensure that the institutions you are applying have the supervisors in your proposed area of research and meets their area of expertise
3. Familiarity and compliance with their guidelines. Each university will have its own guidelines and these must be followed to a T. Many proposals are at times abandoned because the proposal has not followed the guidelines whether it is in terms of words or other criteria including deadlines.
Instructions must be followed in terms of the words, design and deadlines for funding. You need to plan ahead because acceptance of proposals can take time.
The first aspect of writing the proposal is to concentrate on the question. The framing of your question will help you to frame clarity in your own mind as to what you hope to achieve.
The question itself is very important because this will hypothesize the next steps that will further assist you in detailing your plan for implementing your research.
The questions and must be framed in a manner that evokes interest, is very clear, concise and coherent.
Secondly, you need to have a clear state of mind of your reasons of why you would wish to conduct research in this area, which should be relevant; and then you will have to ensure that this is going to be completed in the same time frame that you would have set for yourself. Hence the aims must be clearly defined.
Remember your research has to add value and the university must benefit from the research that is being proposed.
The proposal needs to state the current levels of research that have already been conducted and the details presented must reflect the background research that has taken place.
Further, you need to think of the methodology that you are going to use for your research. You need to in fact layout the design of the methodology moving forward with the experiments and strategies.
You need to pen down the key steps and it is very important here to define the timeline for each stage of your proposal.
The proposal must have the intellectual context to enable the supervisors to see that you are very clear about the concepts and you also need to be able to anticipate the potential problems that are likely to occur and these need to be thought through. Your supervisor should be impressed with the proposal in all aspects and should demonstrate that you have both depth and keen mind.
It is always a good idea to present a flow chart which clearly exhibits the details and the time frames.
Remember no one expects you to know all the answers, but what is expected that you will draft this in a manner that this takes account of the problems that your hypothesis may encounter and how these will be managed with alternative options.
The academic references you provide must be very strong and not generic. They must be able to comment effectively on your ability to research and to understand to your subject. They also need to comment on your personal qualities and skills and your written communications skills really have to be of high standards even though these will be visible from your proposal. The professor who will be your supervisor needs to have the confidence after reading your proposal that this is perfect alignment with the research being done under their supervision and is worthy of allocation of their funding.
Good Luck!
(The author is the Managing Director of an education consultancy company)
Research at Universities has often been the key driver of innovation and inventions that have driven progress, material, psychological, philosophical, indeed in all fields of human endeavorUniversities and professors play a fundamental role in raising funds from various sources both public and private for research and development of this knowledge pool that is subsequently passed on.
Hence while a substantial amount of funding is available from the various sources, each institution will invest in those students that are likely to give them the best return on sums being invested in R&D.
The idea of writing a research proposal can be daunting but hopefully by the end of this article, you will be off to a good start.
Depending on the university, the proposal can be anything from 800 - 2,000 words. If you are seeking funding of say $30,000, think of each word as valued at $200 each. Hence each word needs to be carefully thought through.
There is a lot of help available from the universities and on the websites. As a potential research student, you are going to be investing at least three years of your life in this field and hence this must be an area that you are passionate about, and that will have relevance and usefulness for society.
Before even commencing the proposal, a self-assessment of following criteria, are essential to have any chance of having funds allocated:
1. This must be original and innovative with the potential of introducing cutting edge ideas and form.
2. Ensure that the institutions you are applying have the supervisors in your proposed area of research and meets their area of expertise
3. Familiarity and compliance with their guidelines. Each university will have its own guidelines and these must be followed to a T. Many proposals are at times abandoned because the proposal has not followed the guidelines whether it is in terms of words or other criteria including deadlines.
Instructions must be followed in terms of the words, design and deadlines for funding. You need to plan ahead because acceptance of proposals can take time.
The first aspect of writing the proposal is to concentrate on the question. The framing of your question will help you to frame clarity in your own mind as to what you hope to achieve.
The question itself is very important because this will hypothesize the next steps that will further assist you in detailing your plan for implementing your research.
The questions and must be framed in a manner that evokes interest, is very clear, concise and coherent.
Secondly, you need to have a clear state of mind of your reasons of why you would wish to conduct research in this area, which should be relevant; and then you will have to ensure that this is going to be completed in the same time frame that you would have set for yourself. Hence the aims must be clearly defined.
Remember your research has to add value and the university must benefit from the research that is being proposed.
The proposal needs to state the current levels of research that have already been conducted and the details presented must reflect the background research that has taken place.
Further, you need to think of the methodology that you are going to use for your research. You need to in fact layout the design of the methodology moving forward with the experiments and strategies.
You need to pen down the key steps and it is very important here to define the timeline for each stage of your proposal.
The proposal must have the intellectual context to enable the supervisors to see that you are very clear about the concepts and you also need to be able to anticipate the potential problems that are likely to occur and these need to be thought through. Your supervisor should be impressed with the proposal in all aspects and should demonstrate that you have both depth and keen mind.
It is always a good idea to present a flow chart which clearly exhibits the details and the time frames.
Remember no one expects you to know all the answers, but what is expected that you will draft this in a manner that this takes account of the problems that your hypothesis may encounter and how these will be managed with alternative options.
The academic references you provide must be very strong and not generic. They must be able to comment effectively on your ability to research and to understand to your subject. They also need to comment on your personal qualities and skills and your written communications skills really have to be of high standards even though these will be visible from your proposal. The professor who will be your supervisor needs to have the confidence after reading your proposal that this is perfect alignment with the research being done under their supervision and is worthy of allocation of their funding.
Good Luck!
(The author is the Managing Director of an education consultancy company)