Project Proposal

Project Title

Authors & Affiliations

Introduction/Background

A mini-review of project-relevant literature.
Your advisor will often give you key papers for your project, but you need to familiarize yourself with the relevant literature. The introduction is your selling point for your proposal. Here, you are starting to pitch your idea based on your background research. It should end by conveying to the audience what you want to do based on what is currently missing in literature or the field. Some questions you can used to clearly outline your introduction are:

• Who would this study benefit?

• What is already known about the topic?

• What questions still need to be addressed?

A review of past and current research in the form of the literature review must be concise. It should contain all sources of scientific or clinical evidence on the proposed topic of interest. This section must be structured strategically to provide a strong argument for the relevance of your proposed research while conveying the originality of your work.

Each paragraph should summarize specific previous works with major findings relating to the proposed topic. Each paragraph should build on the previous one leading into your hypothesis. Such as:

Paragraph 1: Summary of broader problem/topic

Paragraph 2: Summary of a more focused topic/problem that your research directly stems from

Paragraph 3: What are the pros and cons of current solutions

Hypothesis

The question you are trying to solve and the expected outcome. If you aren’t sure how to write a hypothesis properly, look it up on google. It’s the most important part of your proposal. You are pitching your idea based on what is currently lacking in your field of interest. It should convey to the audience what you want to do and why the study is important and significant to your field of interest. Some questions you can used to clearly state the significance are:

• What answers still need to be addressed?

• What is your proposed solution/hypothesis?

• How will the completion of this research add to current knowledge and/or practice (i.e. novelty)?

Specific Aims

The master plan for your research project(s) that starts at your question and ends at the expected outcome. This is a broad but clear description of what the project aims to achieve. Each ‘aim’ is a clear hypothesis to be tested. Within each aim, is a set of objectives or tasks outlining the parameters or tools that will be used to test the aim. Typically, there are three aims per proposal, and two to three objectives/tasks per aim.

Experimental Design and Methods Plan

How you will achieve your current specific aim(s).The goal of the research design and methods is to clearly provide detailed description of the overall design and method of analysis that will be used to answer the research problem. In this section the methodology, analysis and validation are discussed and should be appropriate for answering each aim leading up to answering the overall project goal. This should also include the biggest hurdles in your project and how you will get past them.

Questions to be answered in this section

• How will be data be collected?

• How will the data be analyzed?

• Any current methods well-known in literature to validate data?

• Any foreseeable problems and potential alternative solutions?

Timeline and individual contributions

List experiments/steps you need to take, what they entail, and when you plan to do them. Include any training needed to accomplish them. You can use a table or Gantt chart to layout your project’s timeline, listing all tasks in one column and an approximate time to completion in adjacent columns. Make sure to specify your own specific contributions if you are working with others on the project (eg, if you and your grad student will be running experiments together, what aspects are you responsible for?)

Conclusion

A summary of the work you intend to do. Elaborate on the potential impact of your research to advance scientific knowledge and understanding and potential impact on society.

References

Put references in a reference list at the end. Aim for 3-5 references.
Use reference management software such as EndNote Web or Zotero (both free).