How not to write a research proposal

Richard Connor

Why research proposals?

• Spot the difference:– What to do in the 2nd and 3rd PhD years?– What the research councils will fund?

• Imperative for both:– A carefully thought out, well presented plan

that is very likely to end in success• A contribution to knowledge

What is research?

• Discovering something that nobody knew before, AND

• Telling the world about it!

• It is incremental, not revolutionary

What is science?

• A process of knowledge discovery

• Based on:– Observation

– Hypothesis formation

– Hypothesis testing

– Where does technology fit?• It doesn’t always…

Like many things in life…

• Much is learned from looking at bad examples– Much less from looking at good examples!

• The key points are obvious– So the majority overlook them

• Obvious but overlooked:– You are making a case to do something in return for

something else

– The structure of this doesn’t vary much with the topic

Key points

• What– You want to do; in research, what are you

aiming to discover?

• How– Methodology; how will you discover the it?

• Why you– Why is it better for you to do it, rather than

someone else?

Proposal 1

• There is all this new technology in the world

• We will build something new– That hasn’t been built before– Maybe using it– Maybe like it

• A wee bit different

• The end

Proposal 2

• Last time, we did a thing (X)

• This time, we will make some amendments to X– Which will make it better

Proposal 3

• There is intense commercial pressure to produce X– It so far doesn’t exist– We will build something like it

• and then become fabulously rich

Proposal 4

• Company Y wants Z to exist

• They would like us to develop Z

• They will collaborate with us to do so– And even give us some money

So – how to write one?

• What is it?– Contribution to knowledge

• Otherwise, it’s not research…

• What are the research questions?• What are the proposed solution domains?

– What do we already know?

• How will we do it– METHODOLOGY

• Who are we, anyway?!– Why us, not someone else?

The what

• Unfailing, rigorous format:

• Abstract– Para 1: context– Para 2: problem– Para 3: proposed solution

• Wrt the scientific method, the above represents the observation only

The real what: questions

• For us to believe the para 3 solution may be effective, what do we need to know?

• A list of– Things that are required for the solution to

work– Things that are currently unknown

Proposed solution domains

• We do not invent new things– We incrementally improve and reapply old

things

• A list of– Things that are required for the solution to

work– Things that are currently known

The How

• This is research– We don’t know what will happen during the

investigation• And everyone knows it

• However…!– We do need an overall plan– Ideally, hypothesis-testing, ie an experiment– (And what happens if it fails, by the way?)

Why us?

• Because we know the domain well

• Because we are the first to have this significant new insight– ie thorough knowledge of the relevant literature

and community– May also include previous stuff we have done

The competition

• Not other researchers!– If noone else is doing the same thing, it probably isn’t

worth doing– There is lots of space for everyone

• The industry– Don’t try to do something that has significant short-term

commercial benefit• That would be completely unconvincing as research

• Those beneficiaries…– Often regarded as the toughest competition, but…– … if it’s worth doing, they exist!