Transcript Karibuni Ujerumani! Welcome to Germany! Willkommen in

DAAD Proposal Writing workshop
Dr Fridah Kanana Erastus
Kenyatta University
Held on 27/03/2014 at The Luke Hotel,
Nairobi
With acknowledgements to:
DAAD
2
3
What is a good proposal?
4
What is a proposal ?
An opportunity to show
• how you view the situation
• how an idea fills the need
• how it builds on what has been done before
• how it will proceed
• how you avoid pitfalls
• why pitfalls you have not avoided are not a serious threat
• what the study’s consequences are likely to be
• what significance they are likely to have
5
 A good proposal is a carefully prepared, enthusiastic,
interestingly written, skilled presentation that attracts:
• peer reviewers (gate-keepers, guardians of science)
• Funding organizations
• Research institutions (in academic research H.E.I=
• Personal career
• Inventors and innovators (R&D)
• Partners (joint venture)
 • Third parties (society, industry, government)
6
Simplified model of research (with hypotheses), Keith, Punch,
2005
 Pre-empirical stage:

Literature
Theory
 ↓↓
 Research Area 􀃆 Problem 􀃆 Research 􀃆Hypotheses
 ↑

Context
7
 Empirical stage:
 Design Data 􀃆 Data collection 􀃆 Data analysis 􀃆 Test
Hypotheses
8
Questions:
 Questions at general level:
• What is my research about?
• What is its purpose?
• What is it trying to find out or achieve?
 Questions specially:
• What questions is it trying to answer?
• How will my research answer its questions?
 • Why is this research worth doing?
9
 Questions more specially:
• What is my research area? Have I clearly identified it?
• What is my topic? Have I clearly identified it and shown how
it fits within the researcharea?
• What are my general research questions?
• What are my specific research questions?
 Does each specific research question meet the empirical
criterion? Is it clear what data are
 required to answer each question?
10
Proposal writing - Structure
Title
 The Title is the label of your submission; most-read
element
 Should be brief: as few words as possible (<20), and
informative:
 describe contents accurately
 describe subject specifically
 Omit verbs
 Easy to understand
11
 Suitable for indexing
 Include key words for indexing
 Make most important words stand out (order!)
 Follow journal preference
 n.b.: Don’t promise more than what is in the paper
 Cut unnecessary words (e.g. “some notes on ….”)
 Avoid abbreviations and jargon
12
How to find the appropriate title?
 Possibility to use a table:
13
14
 Choose most important keywords:
15
 Proposed Title:
 “Integration of genomics and biodiversity research:
implementation of an international platform”
16
Refreshment of list of evaluation criteria
Overall
 relevance of the subject;
 innovative and up to date;
 Is the project a solution to a problem?
 Does the proposal follow the rules of the funding
organization and meet the respective
 requirements?
 ethics
17
Title
 clear;
 attractive;
 Is it a snap shot of the whole paper?
18
Abstract
 short;
 describes the title;
 clear;
 outlines the aim of the project;
 summarizes the goals and outcomes of
proposal
19
Developing an abstract
 Note 1: Abstract writing is a skill of saying as much as possible in as
few words as possible.
 Note 2: Abstracts are in the majority of cases used for papers published
in journals and therefore
 they are written in a scientific language familiar to professionals in the
field of study.
20
 For applications, I would rather prefer to use summary
which is written in an understandable language not only for
insiders (professionals) but also for those who are not
knowledgeable in the field of study (think about decision
makers in funding organizations).
 Usually we don’t use citations in an abstract: Think about
the fact that abstract is purely your own product.
21
Problem Statement
 Is there a clear and real problem to be
solved? Is the problem clearly justified?
 How important is it?
 Does it tackle a specific area?
 The problem should be not too general.
 Does it fit the timeline of research?
22
State of the art and preliminary work
 Does the starting point correspond with the current level of
knowledge?
 literature updated?
 Is it based on prior research,
 and what has been achieved till now?
23
Aim
 clear;
 relevant to the problem addressed;
 Does it fit the needs of the strategic
objectives of the country or region?
 Is it relevant to the donors’ objectives?
24
Goals
 precise;
 realistic;
 achievable;
 measurable;
 Is it applicable to the specific environment of
researchers?
25
Methodology
 Is the planned methodology appropriate to
the question?
 Validation of methodology with research
objectives?
 Is there use of new methods in analysis?
26
 Planning
 • Is there a clear timeline/work schedule incl. milestones?
 • Does the time reflect the needed budget?
27
Funds requested/Budget/Finance plan
• Reasonable budget?
• Is the amount realistic for the proposed research?
• Is there networking with other researchers from
other countries where they can make use or share
resources?
• Is there a local contribution to the research?
• Is there a categorization of different expenses
mentioned?
28
Outcomes
• Who is the biggest beneficiary? Target group?
• scientific merits (short-term, long-term) (for the concerned
disciplines and other disciplines);
• Will it help the industry in general or is it related to university
research?
• Implications and sustainability of research?
• criteria for outcome evaluation & measurement;
• impact on socio-economy, environment, ….?
 • dissemination
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37