PhD research proposal writing tips + 2 Examples
Key tips for writing PhD research proposals:
1) Purpose: to instill the confidence
2) Get the brief: length, sections, style, etc. Length: anything from 1000 words up to 8 pages. Usually, 2000 words
3) Lit review (start broad, narrow down quickly)
4) Research gap and research questions, and aims
5) Significance (why worth doing)
6) Methodology & stats (inc limitations and alternatives)
7) Timeline (gantt chart) with milestones (experimental and papers)
8) Budget
9) Ethics
10) Why you, why them
11) References (use ref manager software)
12) Language: simple and accessible
13) Outcomes: don't make very specific promises
14) Abstract and Title
15) Two examples
During my PhD I worked for:
Brilliant Club Charity https://thebrilliantclub.org/
iGEM https://igem.org/
my university salsa society
My favourite software:
document management and referencing: Mendeley, Zotero
Image processing: ImageJ
Creating figures: Inkspace, Illustrator, GraphPad Prism
Spellchecker: Grammarly.com
Formatting checker: PerfectIT
Some of these are paid but your University might have a subscription!
Please like and subscribe to let me know that you enjoy this content and want me to create more. Share your own thoughts, doubts and questions in the comment section. Let's start a conversation!
00:00 Introduction
00:40 The purpose
02:10 The length
02:51 Title
03:34 Abstract
04:08 Background
05:14 Research Question
05:26 Methods
07:24 Significance
07:54 Timeline
09:54 Budget
11:26 Ethics
12:01 Why you?
12:50 References
13:14 Language
14:07 Outcomes
15:13 Examples