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Research Plan & Proposal Writing: Quality Research Skills Research Methods
Research Plan & Proposal Writing: Quality Research Skills Research Methods
proposal writing
Quality Research Skills Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design:
Koen De Bosschere
UGent-ELIS
28/03/2012
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
p. 1
Identikit
Koen De Bosschere
Department of Electronics and Information Systems
All types of research proposals: FWO, IWT, BOF, EC
Reviewer for FWO, IWT, EC, NWO, DFG
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For funding
As a guideline
For reviewing
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Total budget
Acceptance rate
Distribution rules
Policy rules
p. 12
Contact the agency for more information
have
a
bright
idea
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Capture attention
Your proposal
should be noticed
p. 17
Break
Before the break
- What is a research plan?
- How are proposals
evaluated?
p. 18
1. Title
2. Executive summary
3. Problem statement
4. Objective(s)
5. State of the art
6. Work plan
7. Work schedule
8. Results
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
p. 19
9. Koen
Resources
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing
De Bosschere 28/03/2012
1Title
concise and descriptive
catchy title maybe a good acronym
predisposes the reader favorably towards the
proposal
p. 20
p. 21
Formulation of gold/silver nano conjugates/encapsulates with novel biactive synthetic 1HPyrazol-2 methoxyphenol derivatives
p. 22
2Executive summary
Maximum one page with
-
p. 23
Good example:
Each day 14,000 people become infected with HIV/AIDS, making the
development of an effective vaccine one of the worlds top public health
priorities. Jan Peeters laboratory is attempting to develop HIV vaccines that
elicit cellular immune responses utilizing the simian immunodeficiency virus
(SIV) infected rhesus macaque animal model. A major component of the cellmediated immune response are cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL). It is thought
that CTL play an important role in controlling HIV and SIV. Most standard
immunological assays do not measure antiviral activity directly, limiting our
understanding of CTL effectiveness. To address this, the Watkins laboratory
developed a novel neutralization assay that quantifies the ability of virus-specific
CTL populations to control viral growth. Evaluating the antiviral activity of CTL
of different specificities will identify those CTL most effective against SIV. This
information will likely impact the design of future HIV vaccines.
p. 24
3Problem statement
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It is only since the start of the millennium that a new and more effective
generation of anti rheumatic drugs has become widely available to the relief of
patients. Most of these drugs target only the immunological component of chronic
rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondylarthritides (SpA) or
osteoarthritis (OA).
Despite the availability of the current portfolio of anti-rheumatic drugs, the
restoration of joint homeostasis and function is still an important clinical challenge
in the treatment of chronic arthritis.
The major shortcomings with currently available therapies are: i) no control of
tissue responses; ii) severe adverse effects; iii) therapy resistance and lack of
disease-specific mode of action.
p. 28
Solution:
invent a problem
(difficult)
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
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4Objective(s)
Research target
High level overview of the research plan + the
expected results
Important section of the proposal
Should be very clear
Non-technical
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
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OBJECTIVES
1. To identify the molecular pathway(s) underlying bone
remodelling using an interactome approach;
2. To validate the role of specific proteins as key actors in
bone remodelling (KI/KD models);
3. To evaluate the cross-talk between stress-induced and
mechanical-induced molecular pathways in bone
remodelling;
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Work plan
Work package 1
- Task 1.1
- Task 1.2
Work package 2
- Task 2.1
- Task 2.2
- Task 2.3
- Task 2.4
Work package 3
- Task 3.1
- Task 3.2
- Task 3.3
Work package 4
- Task 4.1
- Task 4.2
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8Results
Publications
Patents
Products, tools, prototypes
Exploitation plan
A PhD thesis
Problems:
- Non quantifiable (give numbers)
- Vague
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
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9Resources
Resources should
be adequate to
carry out the
research plan
1. Budget
2. Expertise
3. Facilities
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
p. 49
Financial resources
p. 50
PhD-grant
PhD-student (40 k/y)
Working costs (5 k/y)
Compute server (investment)
Total
Overhead University (17%)
Requested budget
160 000
20 000
5 000
185 000
31 450
216 450
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+ detailed CV
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
p. 53
Building
Machines
Colleagues
Other projects
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Administrative problems
with proposals
Formal requirements not OK
- Missing pieces
- Layout/size restrictions not respected
- Not signed
carefully study the call!
p. 56
Success
Have a good idea
Check novelty
Show relevance
Make good plan
Be concise and clear
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
p. 57
writing
Get
feedback
and help
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal
Koen
De Bosschere 28/03/2012
Failure
p. 58
Success !
Koen De Bosschere
2010 UGent p. 59
Task
Write your own research proposal
- 1 page problem statement, objective(s), state of the art
- 1 page work plan
- 1 page results, schedule, resources
The font size should be 11 pt, the language English. The proposal can be on your personal
research, or on any topic you want. It does not have to be a full PhD proposal (it could be
about a single research question or a big project but make sure that the resources you
ask for are consistent with the amount of work). Your proposal should convince the
reviewers that it is better than the rest, and therefore can be funded.
p. 60
Evaluation criteria
Relevance of the problem
- How convincing is the problem statement?
Resources
- Are the requested resources justified by the work plan/impact?
- How well is the expertise of the proposer described?
- What about the available resources?
Quality Research Skills / Research Methods
Module 3. Research skills in practice & Research design: Research plan & proposal writing Koen De Bosschere 28/03/2012
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+ global ranking:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Proposal B (best)
Proposal D (second best)
Proposal A ()
Proposal C
Proposal E
Proposal F
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Schedule
Group
Deadline
proposal
Deadline
review
Meeting
Where
Group
1
April 7,
23h59
April 12,
9h00
April 13
9h00
Turing,
technicum -3
Group
2
April 11,
23h59
April 16,
9h00
April 17,
9h00
Turing,
technicum -3
Group
2
p. 67