Hello everybody i am. Dr farhan zameer an arjun professor and academic specialist at biotechnica bangalore. Today we will try to look into a very important concept and this is about how to write a research experts proposal now many of the students when we do a lot of internships at biotechnica they would ask sir. I am truly interested with research experts but any point of time when i approach a supervisor or a mentor. The first question they would you know put forward. Is you know. Can you write a brief proposal. Can you please write up a small idea of what exactly you want to pursue. Now this is the most crucial part and many a times. Most of our students they fail because nowhere in our curriculum. This concept has been well explained so this many times comes with an experience and we at biotechnica. We are trying to help you by facilitating the concepts of understanding of research. And how to put forward this particular story of your research experts onto the paper so that you can achieve greater heights. Let’s try to understand and dwell in. Hey everybody so for today what we will look upon is how to write a research experts proposal very very very important concept now before i tell you how to write a research experts proposal. Let us try to understand. Why should i write a research experts proposal. Now this y question becomes very very important and it will it will segregate you into various tariffs so please remember by any point of time if you are a bse student and or a btec student trying to apply for a small kind of a funding. Okay so here comes a different kind of a sector. Now imagine sir i have finished my bsc or btec. And then i want to directly go into my phd so here is an integrated program facility wherein you can go into your direct phd and here. The kind of research experts proposal which has been expected is entirely different. Now you can tell me sir i have finished my phd and then i want to apply for a post doc and for a post doc. You the way you’re writing. A proposal is entirely different and here comes the last category.
You you say that sir i have finished my postdoc but here i’m a faculty or i’m a scientist somewhere and sure. The government are a private institute or an r d or a university is asking for a research experts proposal is asking for a research experts plan now. These are the various segments in which you need to bifurcate you know fragment your research experts proposal and then you know the way of approach is entirely different but in this video what we will try to look upon is i will give you certain general tricks and tactics which will actually help you to write a very effective research experts proposal. Now before i go into the the depth of it so first we need to understand. What is the necessity now. Many a times when i look into the necessity of a research experts proposal. Either it is to upgrade your knowledge. Okay either to get an higher degree or many times. You know you’re like a storyteller and you’re enthusiastic of something and then that has to be systematically put into a document now if you’re not putting it in a systematic way nobody would believe it or many a times it becomes difficult for the reader to follow your dreams. Okay or to get convinced with your dreams so here i want to take a small deviation and tell your story rather than you being a researcher you need to always look into your research experts as a film a cinema when it is being produced or when it has been directed there are two major important people who are involved. Okay do you think it is the actors absolutely not because the two important people who are involved in in the production and into creating something which was an idea and transforming it into a reality or into a masterpiece requires two important people. The first person is the director so this director is a storyteller. So you know as an actor i come act and then go off i would do my one frame i would do a bit and then i go off but however the entire frames would be put together and the idea would be from the director so remember your storyteller or the screenplay many times he or she is the director who knows the entire frames of the film.
This is point number one now. Point number two is for me to create this movie. I need to have funding and this funding for a cinema comes from producers so the producer is the major funding agency. Which actually you know helps in uh financial or to create or break that barrier financial barrier so that the the storyteller that is the director is able to translate and virtual concept into reality so now with this analogy i am trying to make you understand who is a director who is a producer in terms of research experts proposal. When you talk about research experts as me as an enthusiastic research experts you know i am the director of the entire research experts proposal. So why do i call it as a research experts proposal. Remember when i say a research experts proposal there should be some amount of novelty which has been involved point number one because if i same you know if i just show you the grizzy pity you know love story okay. When there was a hero there was an you know heroine. And then uh there comes a villain and then the hero is much more stronger enough to kill the uh you know or to get rid of the villain and then finally there is a happy ending. There is a hero and heroine coming together and that’s a unhappy ending story but remember. There should be something new. Because here i am trying to attract my mentors i am trying to attract the reviewers who is sitting to review my research experts proposal so this becomes very very important so novelty in your concept becomes or in your research experts proposal becomes very important now going moving. Uh you know forward. Why do i need to write a research experts proposal. Now uh ugc that is. University’s grants commission has put up a rule for all the faculties saying that. You know you cannot just teach okay so if you want to become a holistic teacher there should be three components in your career that is the teaching career and this is called as art. A rt now a stands for administration t stands for teaching and are very importantly stand for research experts and it is this component what we are talking about so if you look into most of your faculties all the faculties are at one point of the other.
They are trying to write a startup grant or they are trying to write a seed grant or they are trying to write an end scientist grant or they are trying to write up a core grant or an extra mural plant or an intramural plant so everybody at one point of time. Either by pleasure or by pressure are somehow are inclined towards research experts either through the universities or the the the institute at which they are working so here uh the ugc has put up a very important uh claim which says that api api refers to academic performance index. So how do i grade. Your academic performance index so academic performance index has been graded with the art. Whatever we have explained and also remember this also reflects the kind of research experts what you are trying to do and the amount of funding which your research experts proposal has attracted so writing a very interesting research experts proposal for getting funds becomes a primordial factor and everybody is behind this either. Take it from a governmental university or an institute or from a private university or institute so here comes a very important point that i how do i write my research experts proposal. What are the components of a research experts proposal which can actually help me in getting a grant. Now let us try to look into it before i before i start with the entire framework of a research experts proposal. Remember the first and foremost thing. What you need to do is identify your trust area the trust area. You know you cannot just say everybody are working on cancer and today i will also start writing a proposal on cancer. This will not work so as i told you you need to create an hypothesis hypothesis. Buildings building becomes very very important. So this builds the entire core of your research experts proposal so many times you need you need to be passionate and also you need to be practical and you should know that.
Within the given time frame i should be able to finish this kind of a research experts proposal. So the reality or the feasibility of your project is also being judged so remember the two major important component is one is the novelty and the second one is the feasibility of this particular project. So always remember. You need to identify your trust area. And this trust area okay there wherein you know what everybody has already done and what more you can contribute plays a very important role so do not. Just go and tell you know just because uh you know. Breast cancer has a huge scope. And from today i will also start working on breast cancer this formula. This mantra will not work. So first thing is we need to identify the trust area. Now by any point of time during your bsc or your msc or your b-tech or m-tech if you would have created a a history now what do i call it as history history is when there’s a small amount of paper or a small amount of theses or a dissertation which has been put forwarded. Okay so uh imagine that you have started learning bioinformatics in your in your bachelor’s now with your bachelor’s information you have started doing some molecular docking and there is some amount of you know at least one or two review papers or one one original paper which has come out of this particular work. Now this you are trying to create in history now based on this you can apply for a phd or in a phd. If you have already worked on something based on that as a platform you can still apply for a postdoc or on a phd and a postdoc. If you have a a platform which you have actually proved and based on this concept you can look for your future perspectives when you actually get a permanent position or on a tenure track or a non-tenured track so here having a complete baseline having creating that particular threshold and also adhering to a kind of a particular topic becomes very very important.
This gives you an idea that you are following an inverted pyramid approach. Now what is an inverted pyramid approach. I started with a problem and then as i have matured during my course of my research experts so this entire proposal is now been constrained on to one particular topic and this one the the tip of the the inverted pyramid will actually define the novelty of my project so trust area becomes very very important so right now what i am trying to make you understand is the logics of research experts proposal so trust me my dear friends. There are seven major steps what you need to follow when you are actually writing a research experts proposal remember when a reviewer or when your mentor is reading for a research experts proposal. They are looking for three major things. The first thing is the clarity of your thoughts. Okay you cannot jump in and say sir i want to do something and then you know i’m passionate about it whether it will work or not i don’t know but however i still want to work with you. Okay this this will not work okay. But on the way remember there should be entire clarity of this of your thought of your research. This is point number one point number two is whatever you’re trying to tell you. Need to concise it. Okay you need to be very very concise. When you’re actually you know uh proposing your research experts proposal and then the third one is the first one is you need to be clear. The second one is you need to be concise and the third one is. You need to be highly highly critical about your topic so you should not go with an emotional background. You should go with a logical background so that you can actually comprehend what you are writing so just make sure you follow all these threes and this will actually help you in designing a good research experts proposal so to start with the first thing you know you need to ask seven major questions. The first thing is what it or what is it all about okay. What is your research experts all about so this will talk about the aims and objectives of your research experts proposal.
The next one is what do we already know about this particular research experts topic because you are never claim that you are the first person in the entire world who have looked into this particular topic. Because i have in my career i have looked into many students. Uh because of some point of ignorance and some point of over enthusiasm they would always say that sir i am the first person in the entire world who is actually doing this research. It’s a big no-no do not be confident. But do not be over confident on a research experts so doing a thorough literature survey becomes very very important. So you know what is already been done and as we have looked into our previous video when we were looking into the data mining procedures and looking into how how do i actually explore a pubmed. And how do i understand the already research experts which has been done with a particular topic so what has been already done. I need to actually look into it. The third point is what do we need to find out so you need to you know you need to actually put up a research experts question. So so what do i you know with this as a background people have done something. And what do i actually need to do. The next component and the next thing is once. I decide what i need to do that. The next component is how do i do it okay. For how do i do it. This you are trying to define the methodology of your research experts proposal and then finally you will also look into what are the resources okay. How long it will take very very important. This will help you in designing your work. You know work plan and also the time frame okay. You cannot say that you know i would try to design this particular proposal and i will do it for my lifetime. Okay so nobody will believe you and nobody will fund you so it becomes very important that you give give a strong work plan and with that you also give a time frame in which you can. Actually you know. Answer your research experts question and make the research experts project work much more productive then.
Very very important is the ethics component. Now if for example if you are trying to work on a preclinical model or a clinical model wherein you have the animals or human uh or the primates or any kind of an animal model. What you are trying to work upon you need to have a clearance from institutional ethical committee which could be either human ethical committee or animal ethical committee and you would explain in detail that how are you trying to explore all the animals. Okay and how are they. You know their life being justified. Okay and this you need to say that the animal has been sacrified sacrificed for the sake of science. So that you know the science has been upgraded okay without any purpose it is absolute a big no-no that you should not sacrifice or even you should not harm any of the animal or any of the patients or subject per se. Then once i have all this together then finally with a research experts proposal what are my outcomes. So and who is this. Who is the big group which is getting benefited. Now please remember when i am talking about the outcome of the project. I need to think in two different ways. The first thing is how is my society getting contributed and then the other important thing is. How was the scientific fraternity which is actually getting contributed. So what is the science scientific upgrade. What you are trying to do. And then how exactly a common layman from the society can get benefited from your research. These are all the seven major questions wherein a researcher should ask before framing a research experts proposal. Let’s move on now once. You have the research experts proposal okay. This is an outline so remember when i’m trying to put up an i o outline. I have kept around major funding agencies especially from india which are actually funding. Okay uh the master’s students and i know phd students and postdoc students including the faculty. So this is a general framework which has been given but on that way if you want a specific kind of a framework uh example sir explain how exactly dst would uh you know.
Uh have a template for a research experts proposal. If that’s the case please uh you know. Leave your comment in your. Uh you know comment box so that we can create a much newer video. Exactly uh you know focusing on the dst format or an icmr format or an ayush format. So let’s come back so research experts proposal outline has seven major headings or captions the first thing is the title of the project. Okay so the title of the project mainly has the title of the project. You know whenever you’re trying to do you know a big mistake. What most of the students or most of the faculties or the research experts researchers they do is they put up very long long titles and many times the title itself is like a one paragraph so. This should not happen. Make sure your title is broader and above all it should be catchy so this becomes very very important so that you’re tempting the mentor. You’re tempting the reviewer to you know to read okay. The exciting science what you have actually narrated so title remember it should not be more than 70 characters so an effective title is not more than 70 characters or not more than 10 to 12 words. So this is an important point what we need to remember. Then the next important point is how can you because most of the reviewers they do not have time so they don’t. They know they would not like to invest a lot of time in you know in in reviewing your entire proposal. So how do i make it much more. Catchy it’s like a trailer so if you are again going back to the analogy of uh you know a movie this is why. Why should i watch your movie so to make the movie much more interesting or i am trying to tempt for you so that you know you can just watch the movie. So what do i do. Is i show you the trailer so when i show you the trailer so here. The trailer is nothing but your abstract which will which is a small gist of the entire research experts proposal.
What you are trying to narrate then comes the research experts context so what is the research experts context in which or the background or the introduction component which will explain. Why should i do this. Research experts remember in the research experts context. I would expect a lot of biostatistics and a logical rationale. Okay to to the reason for me to perceive this particular research experts again very very important now once this has been done or once this has been justified. The next important thing is your research experts question now depending on your duration of the project. Okay you need to define your research experts question. Many times the project would be for one year to 10 years. Okay so 10. Years is a mega project but however most of the projects they have from one to five years so in this if your project is somewhere around one to two years just make sure asking one research experts question or solving one research experts question is sufficient but any point of time. It is between two to three years then having two objectives or you know sometimes three objectives or three research experts questions is also justifiable but if it is at least five years just make sure it is between three to five objectives which have been achieved in this five years of duration. And if it is a mega project so you have the multiple consortiums or the multiple groups which have been involved who will execute multiple you know objectives depending on their research experts expertise. Then once you have this research experts question defined then each uh you know. The researcher will explain how exactly all these individual questions research experts question will be you know adapted so that the methods and methodology could be explained over here and ultimately you have you will explain the significance of research experts or the outcome of the research. Then finally you would also quote the work which has been done by various people that is called as bibliography or references so that this will be in support to your the the research experts proposal or also it will tell how is your concept deviating from the knowledge which is already existing so all this is the important component wherein a reviewer would look in for now here uh uh the general information i would try to bet uh you know.
Try to be a bit faster so that you know the first information is the project title. You need to have a strong project title which is catchy. Okay and which will help the reviewer to understand the entire gist of your story then you need to also explain what exactly is the priority area example. You know health. Science is a priority area or in health science. What is the sub area. Then you need to say in health science i want to look into bioinformatics or you know or i need to look into biochemistry. So here you’re defining a sub area in a system. Then you know the third thing is you know what is the duration of the project so depending on the duration of the project the feasibility of the proposal and the budget of the proposal will be inclined towards this particular duration. And as i was trying to tell you the total cost of the project will reflect the the duration and the expected outcome now. By any point of time if there are certain um you know imports or exports which has to be done. Okay so then you need to actually very clearly specify that what exactly is the foreign currency which has been involved or which is the equipment what you are trying to buy and remember. This is also very crucial. Because the currency the global currency keeps on fluctuating so it becomes difficult for a researcher to put up a precise you know amount for a given equipment and i would on a personal note. I would suggest you to always have a leverage of around 10 to 12 percent. Even if there is some you know fluctuation in the currency this 10 to 12 percent will be able to uh manage your budget then very importantly okay. Who is the principal investigator and if it is a multi-factorial or in a multi-disciplinary project then who are the co-pi of the project so most of the funding agencies are actually seeking for co-principal investigators and remember these co-principles investigators not necessarily.
They should be from academia. They could be from an industry or they could be from a startup. There could be from an in a research experts institute anywhere but however they should have a regular position however the next one is what is their designation with the designation. You know the reviewer is actually you know looking upon the experience of the researcher whether the researcher is a there is an i know is an angster who is just starting up or a researcher is a seasoned researcher wherein some amount of history which has been already been created remember. We have also done a video on you know understanding the mentors on on the basis of google scholar on on the basis of you know pubmed indexing publon indexing and all these things so please refer to that and finally it will also look into what is the the name of the department in which you are trying to execute this project and also the name of the institute whether it’s a university or it’s a private institute or it’s a government aided institute or it is an autonomous institute all these have been judged with the address of the institute wherein the money would come in then finally they would also look into the date of birth of the principal investigator. Now if you look into the dst uh you know research experts proposal system they would ask for a a principal investigator who is still in his service. Tenure so he the the the principal investigator should not go beyond the age of 60 so hence this has been very strictly monitored and then you know certain personal details uh has been all also captured like aadhaar number pan card number all these have been captured now moving on forward. They also look for certain collaborating institute whether you are trying to collaborate intra or inter okay state or you know between the countries okay this is also an important thing and then finally here comes the major science part so this major science part would talk about the research experts summary.
The entire research experts proposal should be concised in not more than 300 to 500 words then comes the objectives we have already discussed on this and then the problem which has been intended to be addressed and then what is the applicability now everybody is looking for a technology wherein just merely publishing one paper is of no use. Everybody is with you know when a funding agency is giving you money. They are looking for ipr. They are looking for from product. They are looking for a patent or they are looking for some technology which has to be developed with this particular project remember. It is the taxpayers money. Which has been invested on your research experts through the governmental agency. Then very importantly you will also look into the national and international status in terms of review of literature. How exactly your research experts can create an impact on the you know at the global status and at a national status or at the state status or at the regional status. This place are very important. You know factor then work plan. What is the entire work plan many a times. I would request you to. Please put up your work plan in terms of a flow chart or many times. Put up a beautiful. You know bar diagram which can explain what exactly is a time tenure which has been required to execute your work plan then. Finally very very important is your budget estimates. Whether do you want to have a jrf or do you want to have a project assistant. Or what is the amount of money which is required for buying an equipment. Okay what is the you know requirement for your you know uh recurring or non-recurring expenses. Everything has been looked into then comes a very important point which is justification if i am asking for an equipment say for example hplc the government will ask me or the funding agency will ask me. Why do you require this equipment.
So during my entire workflow or in my objective this equipment should become a prime equipment and hence i am trying to justify with the proposed research experts you know. This equipment is a highly must equipment. And hence without this i’ll not be able to execute this project and hence i need to give a strong justification and apart from that i need to give the institutional details of where exactly this particular project has been executed and now uh especially with the dst the the principal investigator and co-principal in the investigator details are already been uploaded there okay and they have separate accounts which becomes the you know which makes the entire submission process much more easier now budgeting becomes very very important and hence i have kept up an exclusive slide on budgeting now in budgeting. There are two major components one is recurring and the other one is non-recurring now in the recurring budget. Okay those equipments are you know those items which are being just procured every year comes under recurring and those equipments which have been purchased only once during the entire tenure of the project example. I want an hplc and hplc will be procured only once so this will come under what what frame this will come under recurring or non-recurring. This will come under non-recurring and then if i want to buy a chemical example hcl or sulfuric acid so that comes under you know recurring because every year sulfuric acid will be consumed as a consumable for my experiment and hence you know next year also i might require sulfuric acid or any other chemical so this becomes very important so the costing the estimate becomes important then most of the projects they also have a provision to keep a project staff so you can take up a jrf or an srf or you can take up an ra or a research experts associate or a research experts assistant and sometimes it’s also called as technical assistant which can help who can help you in executing this particular project then comes what are the equipments which have been required again.
You can divide it into the equipment which is for first year equipment for the second year equipment for the third year but remember equipment would come under the non-recurring uh you know component then comes the domestic travel. Imagine you’re trying to do a field studies and with this field studies if you want to um you know go on a car travel or if you go on to you know go into western guards for collecting. Uh you know samples all these things will come under or if you are going for a presentation or into a conference or into a seminar all this will come under domestic travel then importantly you have the consumables and contingency and very important you know. Most of the funding agencies are lenient enough in providing certain basic necessities necessities such as stationaries. You know photocopying all these things are being you know utilized under the head which is called as miscellaneous now comes a very very important head which is called as institutional overhead now institutional overhead. Is you know depending on the funding agency. You have 12 to 15 percent many times it can go until 20 of the total budget of the fund of the research experts grant would be you know dedicated on to the institutional overhead so that the institute also develops with the research experts grant and you know because the institute is also trying to give you basic facilities such as power telephone you know all the basic laboratory equipments okay. All these things are being provided by the institute and hence you know you need to always allocate a separate institutional overhead grant depending on the funding agency so with all this what i am trying to make you. Uh you know very clear that designing a research experts proposal is not a you know. It’s not an overnight job. You cannot do an overnight magic so that tomorrow morning you get up and you start writing a proposal and your proposal will be granted this cannot happen so what i’m trying to make you understand is make sure um your research experts proposal is something like you know.
You are a sculpture. Okay and this you know. Uh the sculpture will actually uh will uh you know will get molded into you know different different phases. Okay so you if uh if you are the artisan so you have the the chisel and the hammer so you have to. Actually you know very patiently. Sit and do this particular sculpture. Otherwise at any point of time the sculpture could break so it becomes very very important that you have lot of patience and perseverance. When writing a a research experts proposal and from biotechnica we wish you all the very best and now we hope that all these kinds of videos will help you in polishing and nurturing your research experts and from the from the entire team of biotechnica we wish you all the very best and by any point of time if you think that you know. These kind of videos are very much helpful for you. Please leave a comment below so that we can make much more videos as per your requirement. Thank you very much all the very best.
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