Teaching

Advice for writing of a Project Proposal

General

Your project proposal should provide a an overview of the plans for a scientific experiment/study, including objectives, background, and the experimental design or study design. Think of a project application for research funding: Make sure that you can convince possible referees that your project idea is worth funding

Structure

• The project proposal must clarify why the study/experiment is interesting, what are the exact objectives and how it is realised/implemented. The proposal should thus include the following sections:
  • Title page, incuding Title, names of authors, and affiliations. The title should be concise, easily understandable, and still precise. It should raise the reader's interest into the topic
  • Abstract: Provide a short summary of your proposal, including background (1-2 sentences), objectives (1-2 sentences), an overview of your approach (1-3 sentences), and your egeneral expectations (1-2 sentences)
  • Introduction: Conceptual background ("why is the proposed project interesting?") (1-2 pages)
  • Objectives: What is your main research objective? What is your hypothesis? The formulated hypothesis must be precise! (0.5-1 page)
  • Approach: An overview of the general approach that you intend to use, including for example an outline of your experimental design (or study design in case of a field study). Explain why this approach is suited to address your research objectives. It may be a good idea to illustrate your approach with the help of a graphic (1-2 pages)
  • Materials and methods: The description of the methods should be sufficiently precise to convince potential referees that your plans are suited to achieve the formulated goals and that your plans are realistic. Thus, do not only list the methods, but also explain how a particular experiment/study will help to answer a particular research question. This may be achieved by formulating expectations for your study results (up to 5 pages)
  • Time schedule: Provide a realistic summary of the time schedule for your experiment(s)/studies. This timeline is important to further convince your referees that your study is really feasible (up to 1 page)
  • Perspectives: Briefly summarize the broader context of your study including ideas on how one could continue in the mid-term future (1-2 pages maximum)
  • References: List all references which were quoted in the proposal (1-2 pages)

  Length

  • The main parts (Introduction, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion) should not exceed 10 pages. Maximum is 12 pages!

  Format

  • Use a standard font and a font size of 11 (e.g. Arial) or 12 (e.g., Times New Roman). Headers may be larger or in bold.
  • Use a line space of 1.5 or more (at least 1.15)
  • Leave sufficient space at the page margins (at least 2 cm; ideally 2.5 cm)

  Further adivice

  • For further advice, see the page on Project Reports