Outline the various stages of your research project and provide an approximate timeline for each stage. This should include key milestones such as your literature review, collecting and analysing data, writing up your thesis and sitting your viva. You could summarise your research plan as a Gantt chart similar to the below:
Following this, include a literature review. A literature review summarises the existing knowledge which surrounds your research topic. This should include a discussion of the theories, models and bodies of text which directly relate to your research problem. As well as discussing the information available, discuss those which aren’t. In other words, identify what the current gaps in knowledge are and discuss how this will influence your research. Your aim here is to convince the potential supervisor and funding providers of why your intended research is worth investing time and money into.
First, specify which subject area your research problem falls in. This will help set the context of your study and will help the reader anticipate the direction of your proposed research.
- Sample/Population – Discuss your sample size, target populations, specimen types etc.
- Methods – What research methods have you considered, how did you evaluate them and how did you decide on your chosen one?
- Data Collection – How are you going to collect and validate your data? Are there any limitations?
- Data Analysis – How are you going to interpret your results and obtain a meaningful conclusion from them?
- Ethical Considerations – Are there any potential implications associated with your research approach? This could either be to research participants or to your field as a whole on the outcome of your findings (i.e. if you’re researching a particularly controversial area). How are you going to monitor for these implications and what types of preventive steps will you need to put into place?
5. Research Design and Methodology
Directly below your title, state the topic your research question relates to. Whether you include this information at the top of your proposal or insert a dedicated title page is your choice and will come down to personal preference.
The following structure is recommended when discussing your research design:
Last, discuss the key debates and developments currently at the centre of your research area.
If you fail to address the above questions, it’s unlikely they will accept your proposal – all PhD research projects must show originality and value to be considered.
- Confirm that you followed established practices for this type of research
- Discuss how you evaluated different methodologies and decided on your approach
- Show that you took a novel methodological approach to address a gap in the literature
Depending on the length and type of document, you might also include a literature review or theoretical framework before the methodology.
In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images and observations (often involving some form of textual analysis). Specific methods might include:
Your methodology can be strengthened by reference to existing research in the field, either to:
Tips for writing a strong methodology
Academic style guides in your field may also provide detailed guidelines on what to include for different types of studies. For example, there are specific guidelines for writing an APA methods section.
- Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure (whether the results can be reproduced under the same conditions).
- Validityrefers to the accuracy of a measure (whether the results really do represent what they are supposed to measure).
Your methodology should make the case for why you chose these particular methods, especially if you did not take the most standard approach to your topic. Discuss why other methods were not suitable for your objectives, and show how this approach contributes new knowledge or understanding.
In a longer or more complex research project, such as a thesis or dissertation, you will probably include a methodology section, where you explain your approach to answering the research questions and cite relevant sources to support your choice of methods.
It’s important to show that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review convinces the 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.
In some cases, you might have to include a detailed timeline of the project, explaining exactly what you will do at each stage and how long it will take. Check the requirements of your programme or funding body to see if this is required.
Check with the department or funding body to see if there are any specific formatting requirements.
If your proposal is very long, you might include separate sections with more detailed information on the background and context, problem statement, aims and objectives, and importance of the research.
Literature review
Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal to get your thesis or dissertation plan approved.
Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover, and only include relevant items in your budget. For each item, include:
Compare your paper with over 60 billion web pages and 30 million publications.
In some cases, you might be asked to include a bibliography. This is a list of all the sources you consulted in preparing the proposal, even ones you did not cite in the text, and sometimes also other relevant sources that you plan to read. The aim is to show the full range of literature that will support your research project.
In any case, you must consider the following when selecting a theory:
Use our free PhD structure template to quickly visualise every element of your thesis.
Have you discussed each theory in the same level of detail to adequately explain the theory, your justification for its inclusion, its relation to the literature and its potential drawbacks?
You could approach this question with a focus on, say, psychology, power, gender, economics, and so on. The best we can typically hope for – and this is particularly true in much of the social sciences – is an interpretation of the truth.
The goal of writing up a theoretical framework is to tell the reader why you have chosen particular theories, how they relate to the gap in the literature, and how they relate to your aims and objectives.
So – and this is important – we use theory to focus our attention on a small sub-set of all potential explanations, on one particular viewpoint.
Often, you need to combine concepts, hypotheses or ideas from more than one theoretical school. Employing more than one theory is entirely legitimate. I did so in my PhD.
Remember, your examiners are likely to already be familiar with the theory, meaning that rather than discuss every possible thing that there is to discuss about it, you instead need to discuss how and why the theory has been adapted and adopted to the context of your research.
Imagine you are studying local government responses to climate change. The question you want to answer is ‘why do local governments differ in their responses to climate change?’ (the subject of my own doctoral research).
- Select a topic area that will be of interest to you as well as important to your subject area in general. You must also ensure that the institution you are applying to will be able to, and want to, support you in this area.
- Get a template for your proposal that has the correct format and structure for your writing
There are a limitless number of ways to approach the PhD research proposal, the best chance you have at being successful is to visit Researchproposal.org and find the best way for you! We can help you with anything from PhD research proposal format to writing and editing. If you’re asking “how to write a research proposal for PhD”, just ask our professionals for help with PhD research proposal.
If however you are struggling to understand just how to craft that well laid out and persuasive proposal our specialized and reliable services can help you.
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Submitting a Well Written Proposal
Sometimes checking PhD research proposal samples can help you in understanding the proper structure of any PhD paper and proposal itself. Try to search for PhD proposal samples online or check one PhD proposal example prepared by our writers.
We do not provide off the shelf papers or modify work that we find online or elsewhere. All of the support that we provide is tailored to your specific needs and will always result in completely original and unique work focused on your chosen topic area. We use only subject qualified experts that are able to provide meaningful and effective support at all stages from selecting your initial topic area through to editing your final paper.
A question that bugs the minds of many students. And yet, there is no definite answer to it. Some sources say that an average lenght for the proposal is 2500 words. Normally, it’s better to ask about it the institution itself as they might have their own guidelines. However, there is one thing you should keep in mind.
Be specific in your training plan to stay credible: explain which partner will be in charge of each training, as well as the specific content.
Your Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network Proposal – Our tips and tricks in a glance
To help you to structure your pitch, you can answer the following questions:
- What big problem is the project addressing? Every good Horizon Europe project is a project that will solve a big societal issue. For MSCA Doctoral Network proposals, this societal challenge is also the opportunity to train a new generation of young researchers (called ESR=Early Stage Researcher) that will be able to tackle this problem in the future.
- Which obvious solution will this consortium provide? Present the current limitations in this field, and your novel solution to solve this big problem. The key point is to show to the reviewers the novelty of your idea, and the advances made compared to the state-of-the-art.
- Why is it relevant to train young researchers in this field? Provide excellent training to the ESRs should be the major objective of your project. Explain why it is essential to educate young scientists to this field, and why your consortium will provide the best environment for this training.
- What are the major steps to be followed to achieve the project? Explain briefly the methodology you are going to follow during the project. This is not the time for details, you will have plenty of space in the implementation part for that.
Tip#4 – Invest time building your training programme
As a researcher, you may think that the excellence of the science would be the main criteria for the reviewers. But not at all! They want to see above all the quality of the training. Propose relevant workshops and summer schools to initiate the students to the scientific concepts of the project. Don’t neglect the non-scientific training: train your students in communication, writing, teaching, project management, market driven research… After their PhD, they need to have all the necessary skills for a successful career in academia or in the private sector. In particular, clearly highlight how the contribution of the non-academic sector enhances the career perspectives of the students.
The Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Network guide for applicants will explain everything that needs to be added in your proposal!
Read it carefully, note every point you have to address. Make sure you have a 100% fit – even with 90%, your MSCA Doctoral Networks proposal will be rejected. Keep in mind that this grant is very competitive: only perfect proposals will be granted.Despite our IT driven world, your project will be reviewed by peer humans. On average, reviewers spend four hours on each proposal. Make their lives easier! The challenge is not to give as much information as possible but to be very clear and concise and focus on bold key points. Don’t forget to use pictures and schematics to help them understand your idea in a glimpse.
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