How to Approach a Research Prospectus
Regardless of whether you are a student, professor or scientist, it is often necessary to write a research prospectus to get funding or approval for a research project from your department, boss or funding agency. The prospectus is a summary of what you want to research, how you want to go about researching it and what the main points of the research will cover. Students write these to get approval for projects, dissertations and theses. Professors often write these before being allowed to go on sabbaticals or surveys, as well as receiving any sort of funding.
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Instructions
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Choose the title of your prospectus. This should accurately and concisely describe what you want to research in one short sentence.
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Understand the guidelines. Depending on the organization you are asking for funding or permission from, you may have specific standards or guidelines you need to follow. Make sure you have checked these and understand them before embarking on the rest of your prospectus.
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Decide what heading you want under the title for your prospectus. At the least, these will include the introduction, a description of research, what procedures will be performed, what sort of costs will be incurred and what other funding will be needed.
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Fill in each of these headings. Under the introduction give a short overview of the project and what you want to achieve with it. Cover the history of your topic and define any phrases that may have been coined or that your audience will be unfamiliar with.
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Describe your research topic. In the research section, you should cover in detail what you want to cover, why you want to cover it and what information may be discovered. While some history may be brought into this and therefore overlap with the introduction, the data are still contextually relevant and should be included.
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Describe your process. In the procedure section, write down the specifics of any procedures you plan to undertake, along with all equipment and methods used. This allows people reading your prospectus to judge your methods as well as your intent.
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Prove your worth. In the funding section, you should justify your research and why they should give you money, as well as how much funding and support you need and where each part of it goes to. The more detail you are able to give, as long as it is accurate, the more likely you are to get funding.
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Cite all prior and preliminary works in the proper format for the submission at the bottom of your prospectus. Giving due reference in academia is incredibly important, and forgetting it can doom even the most promising research project.
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References
- Photo Credit medical research image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com
