Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
14
Research Proposal and Report Writing
application. First, the subject must be creative,
exciting, and worthy of funding. Second, the
project must have been developed through a
rigorous, well-defined experimental plan. One
of the most important points to consider when
presenting a research proposal for funding is
presenting the information in crystal clear lan-
guage with the application following the rules
and guidelines of the funding authority. The
research idea, questions, or problems must be
very clearly stated and persuasive and address a
demonstrable gap in the existing literature. One
must be sure that the departmental staffs are
interested in the subject area and available for
the project. One must also ensure that the scope
of the project is reasonable and must remember
that there are significant limits to the size and
complexity of a project that can be completed
and written up within a given period of time.
Assessment of proposals takes place not only
for their intellectual ambition and significance
but also for the likelihood that the researcher
can complete this project. International agencies,
particularly the agencies in the Western
countries, use objective criteria in screening the
proposals. In India, the evaluation is subject-
ive, that is, by peer review. Experts review
the projects, and few promising projects are
approved directly; some are accepted with
modifications, and a fairly large number of
projects are rejected. Most rejections are mainly
attributed to inappropriate presentation style.
14.1
Research Proposal
Research is a systematic process and research
proposal is the documentation of the process in
a stepwise manner. Discussions have been made
on the type of research from a qualitative point of
view. For successful implementation of research
program, funding is a major aspect; at the same
time there are various established and reputed
research organizations to carry out different
types of researches. Each and every research
organization has clear-cut guidelines for framing
research proposals. Besides, the above researches
are also carried out by the individual researcher.
Moreover, there are certain researches which do
not require dependence on financial support for
carrying out research program. However, a
research program should always be documented
in the form of research proposals. The content,
steps, and procedure of writing a research pro-
posal may vary to some extent, but there are
certain common points to be documented in any
research proposal. A research proposal is a stand-
alone document which clarifies what the pro-
posed project is about, what it is trying to do
and achieve, how it will go about doing that,
what we will learn from it, and why it is worth
learning. It is a document written to convince
funding agencies and academic bodies that the
project is worth their attention. If the research
proposal is asking for financial support, then
there are several components to a strong grant
