Writing a Research Proposal for External Funding

Need for Proposal Devlopment

Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to introduce a step-by-step guide to planning and writing project
proposals incorporating project management techniques for external funding . To contextualise
the various steps and procedures, the project development is discussed. This serves two
purposes; it provides to prepare a written report for competitive grant and also for planning an
analytical study, or both.

Scope

One important area of concern in research is writing appropriate proposals for funding. This is
required for both the researchers to design and plan their research and for sponsor agencies to
evaluate it in the pre-sanction phase and to monitor its progress in the implementation phase. For
writing the proposal, it is important to understand the skills for project development and the
sponsor system.

The lesson sets out to examine basis for appropriate framework for project evaluation. The
intention is to explore the complex issues encountered and likely to be encountered in
managing projects so as to develop appropriate management method. In reality, it aims to
offer some fresh perspectives on concerns such as participation, monitoring and evaluation in
the management of research projects.

What is a proposal?

A project proposal is an undertaking that has:

- short term
- definite objectives
- well defined inputs and outputs
- specifies objective realization within specified costs and quality

Skills

Two important skills needed in writing research proposals are:

- technical skills
- management skills

Technical skills are needed to conceive research idea, justify its need, scientific and technical
means to satisfy the need. Managerial skills are needed in design and implementation stages and
in identification of resources needed to accomplish promised tasks. One of the basic reasons for
rejection of many project proposals is due to lack of managerial skill in the initial proposal
writing phase. Even technologically sound projects may fail if implementation tasks are ill
defined, or external factors such as socio-economic and environmental concerns are not
addressed properly. On the other hand, an ill-planned project, even if approved on technical
merits alone, it may lead to major set backs in implementation as a result of flaws in the planning
and writing phase. While good planning may not by itself guarantee smooth running of a project,
poor planning will greatly reduce the chances of its success.

Sponsor

Before writing, identify the sponsor agency and relate your and your employer’s interests to the
sponsor’s current interests. The sponsors (DST, DBT, ICAR, CSIR, Commodity boards, etc.)
have their own priority areas and the project should broadly fall in to one of the sponsor’s current
priority area for funding. Most sponsors encourage multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional
projects. Each sponsor agency has set procedure for screening, evaluation and grant of projects.
An insight in to this helps in making project proposal accordingly.

Formats

The formats of most national funding agencies are similar with minor variations. More details
about the sponsors funding priorities and application procedures can be had from their web sites.
ICAR (http://www.icar.org.in)
DST (http://WWW.nic.dst.gov.in)
DBT (http://www.dbt.org.in)
CSIR http://www.csir.res.in)
UGC

Appraisal

Most funding agencies adapt some kind of appraisal system to evaluate the projects. Each and
every section in the proposal will be evaluated. The appraisal criteria are sponsor agency
specific.

International agencies and agencies in the western countries use objective criteria in screening
the proposals. In India, the evaluation is subjective, i.e. by peer review. Experts review the
projects and few promising projects are approved direct, some are accepted with modifications
and fairly large number is rejected. Most rejections were due to inappropriate presentation style.

Department of Science and Technology (DST) has Project Advisory Committees in each broad
area which does the technical evaluation of the project and gives final recommendation. For
adhoc schemes of ICAR, two experts evaluate the projects. In all state-funded agencies, technical
evaluation is followed by financial scrutiny to verify the financial norms for approved items or
activities.

Goals and focus

Writing a Research Proposal 2

Focus on developmental problems or relate to developmental problems as long term goal. Try to
relate it to problems like elimination of poverty, increasing productivity, conservation of
resources, food security and such. Identify the stakeholders, partners or team members.

Proposal development
Structure

The project proposal is similar to a research paper, but with future perspective. Developing
project proposal follows the structure of a project. The distinct structural elements of a project
are :

1. Title
2. Introduction - need, problem statements, aims, and objectives
3. Rationale
4. Research method - means of objective realization
5. Work program – activities, time, resources, indicators and their evaluation norms
6. Budget

Keep in mind that while writing a proposal you are simultaneously planning and ready to execute
the work.

Section-1 : Title

Title gives first impression of a proposal and hence it has to be catchy, small and informative. It
shall not be same as objective, it has to be shorter but at the same time indicates broadly what is
being attempted. Few illustrations are given below:

Petro crops: Establishment of petro crops farming in wastelands of Rajasthan.

Progeny testing of young crossbred bulls in rural areas.
Molecular architecture of photosynthetic membranes.
Animal and handicraft in the urban system – A national survey.
Why chickens die in poultry farm ? Developing a low-cost technology to detect aflatoxin in
chicken feed.
Fishes for the future: Identification and characterization of endangered aquatic species in
selected tropical sites.
Greening the desert: Conserving water in Rajasthan with bunds, tanks and watersheds.

Section-2: Introduction

The introduction will have three small sub-sections, viz. Background, Problem statements, Initial
statement, and Objectives, in that order.

Writing a Research Proposal 3

Background

This section concerns with background information, urgency, critical gaps in knowledge and
need for the present study. Two pertinent questions that help in developing this section are:

What is the context for the proposal?

Why is this study needed?

A review of literature would answer the above two questions. While reviewing literature try to
ascertain the following:

- Others have not attempted the problem you had in mind

- If secondary data exists it would be economical to use it for your purpose
- You must get primary data from a procedure of your own.

Review may suggest

- Ideas for your own work
- What not to do
- Convince others about your knowledge of past work in the area

Develop background information leading to the need for the present study. Justification for
urgency must be reflected in this.

Problem statements

The background part of introduction deals with a context having a set of problems. In this
section, state specific problem of your interest making necessary connection to the context given
in the background. Specify limits that can be studied in the time, resources and budget sought.
Strive for excellence – not sheer quantity.

State what the project is expected to do in one statement, preferably in one sentence. It might be
something like: “technological forecasting of edible oil need in the country”.

The initial statement clarifies the basic intent. This does not promise meeting the need for edible
oils either by production enhancement or imports. The statement is not precise enough to use as a
basis for implementation and needs to be developed into further precise statements in objectives.

Objectives

Care to be taken in writing objectives such that they must be measurable or specifiable in some
way so as to know the completion. This will facilitate the intentions clearly and it also sets useful
criteria for evaluation purpose.

Each objective must be clear with indication to broad and specific measurable out put and
possible to accomplish in the specified time frame. While writing the objectives try to answer the
following queries.
Writing a Research Proposal 4
 • What do you want to achieve?
• The objectives are valuable to whom?
• Are they measurable?
• Are they realistic in terms of time and available resources?

If there are multiple objectives, each of the objectives shall lead to a sub-project. Each objective
should have a corresponding hypothesis.

Objectives are not to be split unduly. It will be convenient if a multi-disciplinary project is split
into number of sub-projects so that each of the objectives can be related to one or two sub-
projects directly. One way of doing this is to develop discipline wise sub-projects, to the extent
possible.

For the example project on oilseeds the objectives are : Development of policy strategies for
sustainable development of edible oil to meet oil seeds requirement in the country by 2020AD.

Section-3 : Rationale

Specify hypothesis corresponding to each of the objectives and involvement of stakeholders.

This should not be justification for the project, which appears in introduction.

As a general rule, a formal research should involve a hypothesis, some preliminary information,
and a strong hunch suggesting the type of outcome you are likely to find. A hypothesis is to be
made as a careful statement of an idea or hunch. The formal study may be preceded by a simple
‘test’ from which ideas or hunches may evolve. However, some studies can be purely
exploratory.

Remember every study provides a piece of information that did not exist prior to the study. What
is important is that the evidence adds a significant body of knowledge or some practical
significance or both. Specify this in this section.

Section-4 : Research method

This section is purely technical. This should succeed the rationale section and gives answer to
questions on how to realize the objectives. Give approaches with details and references wherever
possible. There should not be any ambiguity in giving details. Try to specify how using the listed
approaches will solve the problem. Identify the stakeholders, partners or team members. Specify
involvement of stakeholders in detail. List all the activities and show methodologies for each
activity explicitly.

Specify facilities available and additional resources needed and the method of acquiring
resources. Specify activity wise time frame and investigators who will carry out that. Give
milestones for each objective. Give details of training and consultancies needed. The

Writing a Research Proposal 5

management arrangements for execution of the project to be specified. This will be important if
the project is multi-location or multi-institutional in nature.

Section-5 : Work program

Schedule the work elements listed in the methodology in a sequence indicating the role of each
associate. Standard project management techniques like flow chart, gnat chart or PERT network
can be used to illustrate this. Specify facilities available and additional resources needed and the
method of acquiring resources. Specify time frame activity wise. Give milestones for each
objective. Elaborate how the work will be managed. The management arrangements for
execution of the project to be specified. This will be important if the project is multi-location or
multi-institutional in nature. Most donors require list of equipment with detailed specifications,
time, and schedule for procurement and finally the actual users of the equipment. The facilities
available at the host institution to be mentioned clearly. Show that you have not only sufficient
scientific and technical skills but also access to facilities and your institution has requisite
infrastructure to carry out the project. The chief investigator as the manager of the project has to
identify quality resources and manage them efficiently for successful completion. The proposal
has to document this aspect. Give details of training and consultancies needed linking their
relevance to the project.

Feasibility

Show that you have not only sufficient scientific and technical skills but also access to facilities
and your institution has requisite infrastructure to carryout the project.

Activities

All the activities essential to carry out the project are to be identified through the development of
an activity network, which consists of actions and shows:

- All major activities, and

- The logical relationships between them.

Usually a project of 2-3 years duration may be resolved to about 10-15 activities. Large number
of activities make the project complicated and therefore unhelpful. If the number of activities is
large they may be reduced by abstraction – by specifying levels to each activity so that major
activities belong to a particular level of detail. Activity at the lowest level shall be scientist
specific.

Note that the activity network is non-linear with multiple feedback loops. Activities begin with
actions (verbs). For the identified activities, set the sequence, time and resources needed. This
can be done only after identifying all the sub-activities for each of the activities. For each
resource, human or non-human, specify availability and cost.

It is unlikely to identify all the resources at the beginning. Keep provision to meet such
contingencies during implementation.
Writing a Research Proposal 6
Partners

For each associate, clearly specify their role, the work division and the financial details. In a
multi disciplinary project, develop activities for each discipline or associate so as to bring clarity
of work elements and accountability.

Relate the training/consultancy needs to the project work. Specify when and where the training
has to be provided and whether it can be provided within the country or outside.

Quality concerns

One of the serious concerns of planners is quality of research output. Various indicators have
been identified and formulated to identify professional quality. Some distinctive concepts should
be available to convey quality in professional out put, i.e. to convey successful and non-
successful applications. This has to be peer judgments. If the project is to run successful, then it
is important to identify indicators for monitoring and evaluation.

Monitoring and evaluation

Sponsor would like to have periodic evaluation reports so as to judge the success of project at
various stages and if need be assist in mid term corrections. Logical framework analysis with
stress on participatory working (participation of stakeholders and interest groups in planning,
monitoring and evaluation) is the most widely promoted and used by ISNAR, USDA and CIDA
(Mc Lean, 1988). Log frame method intends to structure a debate about objectives with
associated inputs and outputs, and assumptions and risks. Following these experiences, NAARM
has developed format for agricultural research projects of ICAR (Katyal et al, 1999).

Log frame method as a project management tool help the participants arrive at agreement on the
method to be used and then generate an agreed view of the way in which the project should be
managed. The key assumption and risk serves to acknowledge external disturbances during the
course of the project. This provides an awareness of source of turbulence with provision for
further monitoring and review.

Indicators

Specify quantitative indicators to assess the project progress and achievement. Explain how to
assess or measure them. Give indicator to each activity. Provide who and how many will be
benefited and try to give quantifiable figures. Some typical indicators are:

♦ Productivity
♦ Returns
♦ Poverty alleviation
♦ Food security
♦ Gender specific impact
Writing a Research Proposal 7
 ♦ Conservation
♦ Employment generation
♦ Use of indigenous knowledge

For each activity set criteria for performance, i.e. give performance indicators and also measure
of performance. This will facilitate monitoring of the progress. The key activities and critical
parameters for success of project must figure here. Ultimately this information will be used to
judge project progress.

Section-6: Budget

Give year wise and activity wise budget in detail. Justify costly equipment and other facilities.
Try to include reasonable inflation while calculating year-wise budget. Give summary budget.
Specify budget for each partner if they come from different places and administrative units. In
such case, a summary budget for each partner should be provided separately. The various
budgets should match the details given in the work program. Avoid over budgeting, as under
utilization will be a negative remark.

Once all the project activities costs are listed, then split the costs as per the funding agencies
format. Most funding agencies need cost details in three heads, viz. establishment (salaries),
recurring and non-recurring, to be specified year-wise.

Include bay windows or activities that can be dropped if the sponsor agency gives reduced
sanction. Alternatively, if you feel the cost is high, look into sub-activities of each activity and
drop the low priority sub-activities and adjust the project cost.

The fund requirement will be low in the initial

phase, rises rapidly during the implementation
phase and then falls rapidly at the end. The year-
Cost

wise splits have to be kept in mind while preparing

the budget.
Time

General Tips

Sequence

The sequence of various sections in the project proposal will be same as in the project structure.
However, the sequence in which each section is to be written need not be the same as in the
structure. The logical sequence which helps in writing the proposal, is described below.

Write the title and key words first. Following this develop rationale and materials and methods.
Develop work program including training details. Provide indicators. Give detailed budget and

Writing a Research Proposal 8

budget abstract. At this stage write introduction giving background information, urgency and
need for the present study. Finally, write the abstract in less than 15 lines.

Style of write-up

The proposal should be easy to read with short sentences. For every break in the continuity of
text, a separate paragraph is to be given. The entire text should be written in future tense. The
manuscript should be about 25 typed pages typed with double space and with clear one-inch
margin on either side.

Review

• Check for safe procedures, environmental concerns, and ethical considerations.

• Downplay but do not omit the benefits to your organisation.
• If you have to use “we,” always be unambiguous; clearly identify which scientist or partner
will do what.
• Write and sleep on the proposal; then re-read critically. Consult with others; spend time
thinking. Listen to comments with patience. Show it to a non-technical person. Try to catch
errors, repetitions, and inconsistencies. Get the words right. Edit to shorten and make it clear

Writing a Research Proposal 9