Research project proposal

Before starting

- Why are we here?

- What is a research/project question?

It has been answered (adequately) before?

Is it useful?

- Who should ask that question…we?

- Differences between a course work and a project??…

some feedback, please!

 Research proposal
• A research proposal should contain all the key elements
involved in the research process and include sufficient
information for the readers to evaluate the proposed
study.
• Regardless of your research area and the methodology
you choose, all research proposals must address the
following questions: What you plan to accomplish, why
you want to do it and how you are going to do it.
• The quality of your research proposal depends not only
on the quality of your proposed project, but also on the
quality of your proposal writing.
 1.2. Identifying a research topic
• Defining the problem is the first step and one of the most difficult
in research undertaking.
• Each topic that is proposed for research has to be judged according
to certain guidelines or criteria. Before deciding on a topic, each
proposed topic must be compared with all other options.
Criteria for selecting a research topic

• Relevance/Significance
• Avoidance of duplication Urgency of data needed (timeliness)
• Feasibility of study
• Cost-effectiveness
• Applicability of results
• Interest to the researcher
 Before start writing a research proposal

• Do I have the clear research question?

• Have I read broadly and deeply in that area?
• Have I discussed the topic with peers?
• Do I feel support from faculty?
• ……
 What it should contain?

• What do you want to do?

• Why do you want to do it?
• Why is it important?
• Who has done similar work?
• How are you going to do it?
• How long will it take?
• How much it cost to implement the project ?
 Evaluation of proposals

Proposals reviewed based on specific criteria :

• How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and
understanding within its own field or across different fields?
• How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the
project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of
prior work.)
• The broader impacts of the proposed research
• The research design must be sound enough to yield the expected
knowledge
• The aims/objectives are likely to be achievable in the given time period
• The scientific design is described and adequately justified
 Issues to remember

• Know your area of expertise

• What are your strengths and weaknesses ?
• Do not assume that, because you do not understand no
one understands it or that there has been no previous
research conducted in the area.
• If you want to get into a new area of research, learn
something about the area before you write a proposal.
• Research previous work and be a scholar.
• Before you start writing your research proposal find out
whether you’re required to produce the proposal in a
specific format.
 Ethics

- Plagiarism:
when you copy someone else’s work or ideas
DON’T do THAT!!

- Falsification of data: it happens…

also in big companies
be honest!

- Who owns the work done?????

- Importance of research in human ethics:

relation human being vs. research
A project proposal should contain the
following elements
1. Summary /Abstract not more than a page

2. Introduction

Background

Statement of the problem

Objective of the project

General objective

Specific objective
A project proposal should contain the
following elements continued…
3. Literature review

4. Methodology
 Materials

 Experimental
 List A
 List B

5. Expected result/ outcomes

A project proposal should contain the
following elements continued…
6. Benefits and Beneficiary

 Benefits

 Beneficiaries

7. Work plan

8. Estimated cost of the project / budget

9. References
 Title page

• The title of your research proposal should state your topic

exactly in the smallest possible number of words.
• Titles should almost never contain abbreviations.
• The title page has no page number and it is not counted
in any page numbering.
• First impressions are strong impressions: make your
title an attention grabber.
• Put your name, the name of your department/faculty,
the name of your advisor (s) and date.
 Executive Summary
• A well written summary provides a succinct overview of the
research proposal. The summary should clearly indicate why your
proposed research is important, what your project aims to address,
and how the project will be undertaken.
• Example :
• The research teams in ………. are seeking a grant to implement a
novel technology to recover energy from plastic wastes with the
objective of producing clean liquid fuels from plastic waste by using
pyrolysis (thermal depolymerization).This innovative plastic-to-
liquid fuels technology reduces the amount of waste to be sent to the
landfill, recovers energy from plastic waste, helps to generate
income from the selling of the produced liquid fuel and solves the
energy problems of the society. The first phase of the project will be
completed by designing, manufacturing and testing the pilot
machine within four months. Funding in the amount of …… Birr is
requested for staffs and to purchase the required materials as well as
to manufacture the machine.
 Introduction
• The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary
background or context for your research problem.
• How to frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest problem in
proposal writing.
• The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the
problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be
followed by justification of study.
The introduction generally covers the following elements :
• State the research problem
• Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in
such a way as to show its necessity and importance.
• Clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
• Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be addressed
• Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your
research
• State your hypothesis or theory
 Literature review

• What is the state of the science/art on this problem? Are there gaps
in the literature? How will your study fill those gaps?
 Synthesize recent literature (within the past 5 years)
• Literature review surveys scientific articles, books, journals,
dissertations and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of
research, or theory, providing a description, summary, and critical
evaluation of each work.
 Components of Literature review

Development of the literature review requires four stages:

• Problem formulation - which topic or field is being

examined and what are its component issues?
• Literature search - finding materials relevant to the subject
being explored
• Data evaluation - determining which literature makes a
significant contribution to the understanding of the topic
• Analysis and interpretation - discussing the findings ,
conclusions of relevant literature and finding the research
gap
 Objectives
The objectives of a research project summarize what is to be achieved by
the study.
• should be closely related to the statement of the problem
• Specific objectives
• These are a breakdown of the general objectives
• Systematically address the various aspects of the problem
SMART Objectives
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable/attainable
• Realistic
• Time bound
 Delimitations
• All research has limitations and thus certain work that will not be
performed
• The work that will not be undertaken is described as the
delimitations of the research
Example :  
• This research project was intended to find innovative grate
combustor + steam cycle configuration based Waste-to-Energy plants
with the objectives of increasing the efficiency of the plant, reducing
the cost of electricity production without facing corrosion problems
of boiler tubes in an environmentally friendly way. Waste
gasification and pyrolysis are not included in this research
project. However, a detailed comparison of each technology has
been presented in the introduction section.
 Methods , Material and Procedures

• Method – the specific techniques, tools or procedures applied to

achieve a given objective
• Detailed enough so that the reviewers could conduct the study
• The methods section is the heart of the research proposal
 Time Frame & Work Schedule

• Important planning tool

• The proposal should include the sequence of tasks to be
performed, the anticipated length of time required for its
completion and the personnel required.
• It can be presented in tabular or graphic form (Gantt chart)
• Flow charts and other diagrams are often useful for
highlighting the sequencing and interrelationship of different
activities in the study.
 Budget

• The budget translates project activities into monetary terms

• It is a statement of how much money will be required to accomplish
the various tasks
Major items
• Salary for staff
• Travel
• Purchase of equipment
• Printing
• Consultancy charges
• Institutional overheads
 References

• Each reference must include the names of all authors (in the same
sequence in which they appear in the research proposal or thesis),
the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page
numbers, and year of publication.
• The exact format for depicting references within the body of the text
and as well as the end of the research proposal varies from one
discipline to another
• The information you give in the reference list must be enough for
readers to find the books and papers in the library or a database.
 Literature review

- Classification and evaluation of what accredited

people have written

- What should we do?

a) We need ability to find

information
b) Use the library, electronic
libraries, etc
c) Reference programs
 …strategy of reviewing
Bibliographic research

We have got We have NOT got a

a lot of time lot of time and…
that is normal!

- Look in indifferent - Look for GOOD journals

kind of journals - Look for reviews: they
- Look for reviews and also
specific papers refer to “old” papers
- Read papers - Read abstracts and
decide
…Hopefully most of the time
- What are the authors trying to answer?
- Is the research important, innovative…?
- How were the data measured?
- What information do you get of the sample?
- What are the data?
- What are the conclusions?
- Do you understand and believe the data,
the explanation and the findings?
- Can you use this work for your own research?
 …and we ask ourselves…
- Questions that the literature review answers

- How good are my skills?

- Have I analysed the literature?

- Is part of this literature contrary to my perspective,

or point of view

- Is my literature review useful for other people?