Writing a research proposal is not a 1 or 2-day task, it takes a lot of time, patience and focus. Before start writing a proposal, you need to do a list of things:

1. Develop Research ideas: Figure out which part of your subject you like the most and then do a lot of reading about it. There must be a lot of facts which are not known about the field, there would be a lot of questions not answered until now and by entering into the research field, you have a chance to answer them, to do some new inventions. Try to go deep into the topic, ask many questions like “what” “why” and “how”. When you will seriously ask these questions to yourself and to the scientific community, you will come up with a lot of questions and these questions are going to form the basis of your proposal. List out all these questions and simultaneously review the literature to make sure that these questions are not already answered by someone else. If it is so, do not get disappointed, a lot more is required to be done and you can surely give your contribution, you just have to “think more” and “think smart”. When you are done with reading a lot of research papers and articles related to your topic, you must be having a few questions in your hand that has not been answered until now and once answered, can revolutionize your field.

2. Research Output: The most important part of the research is the “output”, what are you expecting out of this work. How can your research benefit the scientific community, industries, and common people? If you have a clear goal about why you want to do this and what change it can bring, trust me there is a high chance that you will get funds to accomplish your work.

3. Talk to your supervisor: If you are interested in the research field, you should have a mentor who can guide you with your work. If you still do not have found one, please look for someone who is doing good work in your field of interest and ask them to supervise you. Once you have a supervisor and research ideas with you, discuss them with your mentor, mentors usually feel very good when students come up with their own ideas and show interest in their work. Actually your supervisor will give a real picture of your ideas, sometimes we, as students think too broad which is usually not possible at the practical level with limited resources, so when you will tell your guide, you want to do this or that, they will be able to tell you if that would be possible or not. Do not get disappointed if your supervisor does not agree with you on your ideas, they obviously know better than you and would not like you to get stuck with your research in between.

4. Workout the methodology: A research is meant successful only when it is proved scientifically otherwise your ideas remain ideas. So, now when you have research questions in hand, try to figure out how can you answer them practically, which current methodology can you use to prove your point. For this, you can refer to already published research papers and can also discuss with your supervisor and seniors in the field.

Once you have done this much of preliminary work, you are ready to give a written form to your ideas. Here’s how you can write a formal research proposal:

a. Title: One of the most important decision-makers about your application is the “Title” of your proposal. Ideally, it should be short (maximum 5-7 words), broad (not too specific), catchy and understandable to the layman. It should immediately catch the attention of the reviewers and they should get interested in reading your proposal further. It’s good to think about the title when you are done with the rest of the writing.

b. Abstract: Try to write a very simple paragraph giving an overview of “what this proposal is all about”. Do not include all the technical details of your study in the abstract, try to make it as simple as possible, but at the same time do not forget to mention:

i. What this project is about

ii. What is your objective

iii. How this project is going to benefit the scientific community, industries and common people

c. Introduction and Problem Statement: Introduce your topic in simple terms and talk about the facts related to your project. Talk about what has been done and what needs to be taken into consideration now. Then talk about your aim related to the project, what is your main objective, what do you want to prove and how your study is exclusive, what makes it different from what others are doing, remember, the more you will be creative, the more you will gain.

d. Hypothesis and Objectives: In the research field, it is important to develop a hypothesis, it is nothing but your assumptions related to your work which you call “Hypothesis” in scientific terms. It is important to mention in your proposal that what are you expecting out of this work, what could be the end result? Then, also talk about the objectives of your study, what are the questions you are going to answer in this project. It is good to describe the objectives briefly by giving a suitable heading. You can also add relevant data (some preliminary work) and pictures supporting your hypothesis.

5. Research Methodology: Again mention your objectives, this time talking about how are you going to answer these questions practically? Which research methodologies are you going to use and why? Which experiments are you going to conduct in order to prove your point? Do not make it too lengthy. Again, try to add some relevant data in the form of pictures, tables, figures, graphs, etc.

6. Expected results and output of the study: Mention, what are the possible outcomes of your study. Again, briefly highlight the main results you are expecting out of this study and how you study is special and can help in adding knowledge to the scientific world.

7. Bibliography: It is very important to give recognition to other’s work. Add references using EndNote or manual method. Try to mention as many references as possible. It shows that you have done an extensive study before writing the project. Also, keep in mind the page limit and word limit. Most funding agencies need to complete projects in 6-10 pages. Write accordingly and also follow the format, if specified by them, otherwise, use the standard one.

It's very helpful. Thank you, Prof. for sharing your knowledge.

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