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  • Research proposal expectations

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    The aim of the proposal is to demonstrate your knowledge of your field, state your research questions and explain and justify how your will conduct your research. The University guidelines on the Preparation of Research Proposals in Research Degrees indicate that a proposal: 

    • is 10–20 pages in length which might be about 4500 words with a font of Times New Roman, 12 pt, single spacing
    • has three main sections: 1) Introduction, 2) Literature review and 3) Methodology
    • includes other sections: 1) title, 2) timeline/project plan (table or Gantt chart), 3) trial thesis table of contents, 4) budget, and 5) brief bibliography or reference.
    A Health Sciences proposal may also include appendices with a 2-page CV, description of supervisory panel and iThenticate report. These guidelines may vary according to your discipline and Academic Unit, so check with your supervisory panel.

    The function of your research proposal is to show current world’s best practice in your research area and to describe how you will contribute to this practice. The proposal should:  

    • have a developed research concept
    • identify the current status of the research or ‘state of play’  
    • identify the final deliverables of the research study
    • name the anticipated benefits of these deliverables compared to current research
    • identity the strategic impact of the project, ‘Who will sing about it?’
    • be easy to read so that your research peers will understand your research
    • communicate clearly
    • have a logical framework
    • present a research question (do NOT attempt to answer it)
    • explain and justify a sound and logical research methodology to the question/problem/topic.

    Assessing the proposal 
    Your proposal, when completed, will be assessed by a panel. Find out about what criteria will be used for assessment. You may be assessed with:
    1. criteria similar to the thesis examination criteria, listed in AB-58 P6 Research Degrees Thesis Preparation and Examination, Section B6a for PhD and B6c for a Masters by research (see Table 1).
    2. a rubric with criteria to assess each section of the proposal (see Table 2).

    Reflection (do some ‘free writing' - in other words, write for 15 minutes in response to the following questions)

    1. What is the focus of my research?
    2. Why is it important? What is the potential impact/significance of my research?
    3. What is already known about my topic? What future research needs to be conducted? Why?


    This topic was contributed by Monica Behrend.

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