Project Proposal Writing: Expectations of

Evaluators of Funded Research Project and

What to target?
“Writing a project proposal in the present era is an art and
acceptance of the proposal by a funding agency is really a
science”
 Expectations of Evaluators of Funded Research Project
• Relevance- Why do you want to do this research? (Right person to invest)
Will this research adding to the state of knowledge? (Publications!) What is the
expected outcome? (patents!)
• Quality- How are you doing the research? (methods!)
What is your qualifications to do the
research?
• Feasibility- Can you achieve the goals with your team?
Can you achieve the goals within the time
horizon? Can you achieve the goals with the
requested
resources? (budget)
Proposals should full-fill the standards of funding agencies and should
within allocated budget
 What to target?
The proposal must
be capable of
convincing the Credibility Achievability practicality
evaluation
committee

Address four categories of

people present in the
evaluation committees
with different
Reproducibility expectations- academic
of the research colleagues (experts),
policy-makers,
practitioners and a lay-
man who evaluate your
research proposal
Present your proposed
research in such a
way that it will open a
door of opportunities
and a paradigm shift
will happen in this
field
 How to write a good research proposal?
1 2 3 4 5 6

Be practical- Be a good Be persuasive- to Be crystal clear- Be a good finisher- Make broader

balanced with a planner- survey convince reviewers, proposal should be Objectives should links- by social-
realistic the gaps in funding agencies, clearly stated in a be achievable networking or
understanding literature and educational institutions within stipulated engineering
and supervisors that simple language in
of what can be develop new such a way that non- time-line with scientific
achieved the research is worthy community
avenue to the specialists can
chosen research comprehend

Chances of Rejection???
Many proposal submissions get rejected or at least returned to the author “for
formal reasons” which is referred as-
missing elements in the submission documents,
deviation from recommended structure and style, and
poor presentation (i.e. poor English writing, carelessly prepared and
incomplete figures
 • Before you write proposal, read …… and lean from others
experiences!
• Simple and direct language
• Use unbiased language
• Strictly follow the recommended structure and format of
funding agency
Writing skills: • Follow a logical order
do’s and • Be clear, concise and complete
don’ts in • Don’t use vague words like “a large area” rather “3.5
proposal million ha”
• Get to the point quickly ….. and stick to it!
writing • Cite only references that are relevant and absolutely
necessary
• Include only graphical elements that are necessary
• Do generate some preliminary data or information
• Use standard units and abbreviations, and be consistent
• Use a Spell Checker to prevent typographical errors in
spelling (very annoying for a reviewer)
Writing Don’ts
Writing Do’s (permitted)
(unnecessary words)
■■ Needless to say …
■■ For your information …
■■ It goes without saying …
■■ It is important to know …
■■ It is of interest to note …
■■ It should be noted …
■■ It stands to reason …
■■ It was demonstrated that …
■■ In the case of …
■■ Attention is called …
■■ It was found that …
■■ The field of …
■■ The area of …
■■ The idea of …
■■ The concept of …
■■ Very, quite, incredibly …
■■ Fortunately / Unfortunately
■■ Meaningful …
■■ In this instance …
■■ In the latter case …
Writing Don’ts
Writing Do’s
(lengthy expressions)
• As far as … is concerned As for …
• At an early date … Soon …
• At the present time …. At present … or … now …
• By means of …. By …
• In order to …. To …
Contents of a research
proposal
• Title of the proposal- Should be catchy and appealing
• Background/Introduction-should be idea driven and innovative
• Rationale of the study- strong and clear
• Review of literature- chronological and connected
• Objectives and Methodology- Clear-cut and briefly stated
• Ethical considerations- Ethical standards are met
• Budget- Fairly declared
• Timeline- 1-5 years
• Appendices
• References or bibliography
 Road–map of a research proposal and its implementation

Scientific part to perform

Financial support & Wealth generation

Model of funnelling and research planning (Roberts and Dunworth, 2012)

Background/
A clear-cut and
Creates interest in
well-thought-full
Initial pitch of the reviewer
Introduction an idea
ideas forms the
backbone of the
about the topic
and proposal
proposal
You should know
how to search an
How will this
appropriate what you want to research add National and
scientific keyword do to adequately knowledge, International
in various search address the gaps in practice and policy importance of the
engines and previous proposed topic
literature in this area?
research?
database-
Google, Google
Scholar, PubMed,
Scopus, Medline, Significance of the
Mendeley… proposed work
Rationale of the study
• Should contain the hypothesis of
the research proposal
• Convey a strong message to the
reviewer that your work is novel
and innovative
 Review of literature

Most up-to-date scientific information (research article, review article,

survey, commentary) pertaining to the topic in chronological order

Summarise each research article/paper in a paragraph, highlighting

the crux of the article and its relevance to your proposal

Arrange intelligently so that the reviewer can grasp/infer

about your understanding related to your field of research

Progression of review can move from the more general to the

more focused studies like an interesting story (up to climax)
 Objectives
• Should be clear-cut and defined broadly but very
specific
• Broad indication of what the proposer wants to
achieve
• Categorise objectives as primary (may be
experimental) and secondary (may be computational)
• The proposed objectives would be easy to obtain
approvals from various committees (of university
and funding agency) for example-ethical committee
• An objective should be achievable within time-line
of 6 months to 1 year
• Only such experiments should be designed for
which instrumentation facility is available in the
university or institute
Methodology or Research Plan
• Each objective should be correctly addressed with
appropriate scientific approach or method to solve it -
including specific references to websites, databases, key
texts authors
• Show the research plan in a flow-chart to make reviewer a
quick way to understand
• The other components of this section may be-
• Population and sample size,
• Data collection,
• Neutrality,
• Consistency,
• Applicability,
• Data analysis
Ethical considerations
Medical research introduces special moral and ethical views that are not usually
encountered by other field of research

The proposer should take special care in ensuring that ethical standards are met

Protection of the participants' rights (right to self-determination, right to privacy, right

to autonomy and confidentiality, right to fair treatment and right to protection from
discomfort and harm)

Obtaining informed consent and the institutional review process (ethical approval) is
an important aspect of research

Informed consent needs to be obtained from the participants as well as

the relevant authorities
Budget

Evaluate and mention cost of

required instruments,
Man power (JRF, SRF, RA)
consumables, travel grants,
required in the project and their
books and journals,
gross salaries
stationary items and all other
aspects of the research

Add an additional
allowance/overhead for All items in the budget should
unpredictable disasters, delays be justified
and rising costs
Timeline
Should be clearly
mentioned (1-5 years)
and tabulate the
achievable targets
within 6months-12
months
Appendices
• Appendices are documents that support the
proposal and application
• The appendices will be specific for each
proposal but documents that are usually
required include-
• informed consent form,
• supporting documents,
• questionnaires,
• measurement tools and
• patient information etc.
 References or

bibliography

Cite the sources you used in

composing your proposal