Graduate Research School
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The Guidelines for Preparing Research Proposals are available in HTML, PDF and RTF formats.
The Research Proposal Guidelines ask you to provide details of:
- Confidential /sensitive information: If the project involves the collection of confidential or sensitive information, describe how this information will be managed.
- Intellectual property information: If the project involves intellectual property issues or is related to any arrangements or agreements that may affect the intellectual property arising from the research, describe how this will be managed.
- Fieldwork information: If the project involves the research outside of UWA, describe how this work will be managed. Indicate when and where the research will be undertaken, whether or not a research visa is required, and how contact will be maintained with supervisor(s) during this period.
- Facilities: If the project requires any facilities, equipment or resources that are not available at UWA, indicate how these will be accessed.
- Statistical component: If the project involves statistical analysis, describe how this analysis will be undertaken.
- Skills audit: If additional skills training is required for the project, outline a strategy to attain these skills. Determine if skills training is required for the project using the skills audit proforma provided at http://www.postgraduate.uwa.edu.au/students/proposals/format/?a=428945.
- Research project communication: Provide an overview for communication of the project research. For example, indicate anticipated publication of journal articles, extended abstracts, papers or book chapters and conference, workshop or seminar presentations. If possible, estimate where and when the research communication will occur. Indicate if the thesis is planned to be formatted as a series of papers.
- Approvals: Please list all the approvals required for the project. For example, UWA approvals are required for use of animals, the participation of human subjects, working with children, genetic manipulation, potentially biohazardous procedures and situations, the use and disposal of potent teratogens and carcinogens, and the use of ionising radiation or other hazardous items.
- Data Management: Please indicate how the data collected as part of the project will be stored. See http://www.is.uwa.edu.au/research/research-data-management-toolkit
- Research project plan: Provide a plan of the research project from enrolment to thesis submission. Where appropriate the plan should include time points related to experiments, studies, fieldwork, research communication, statistics courses, lab safety courses, approvals and skills training. A Gantt chart or timeline is the recommended format for this plan. This plan should be most detailed for the first year of candidature and each Annual Progress Report will then update the relevant twelve month period of the plan.
How you can approach this:
Confidential information, sensitive information and/or intellectual property issues
If the project involves the collection of confidential or sensitive information, you need to describe how this information will be managed. You also need to indicate if there are any intellectual property issues should be considered, including any existing intellectual property of value that is pertinent to your project and to any agreements that may affect your right to intellectual property arising from your project.
If your project does not involve confidentiality, sensitivity or intellectual property, you should sate clearly that no such issues exist.
Candidates who are likely to be affected by matters concerning confidentiality or intellectual property should also familiarize themselves with the relevant confidentiality and intellectual property rules and policies.
A simple guide for research students regarding confidentiality and intellectual property issues is available online.
Your should also read the UWA Rules for Higher Degree by Research regarding Intellectual property and Confidentiality. See Doctor of Philosophy Rules: Rules 24-30. See Master's Degree by Research Rules for courses administered by the Board of the Graduate Research School: Rules 29-35.
Field Work
If you are intending to undertake fieldwork, you must:
- Be adequately insured. Consult the UWA Student Travel Insurance Policy
- Read the UWA Field Work Procedures
- Read the UWA Travel Policy
- Read the UWA Rules for Higher Degree by Research regarding Internal and External Candidature. See Doctor of Philosophy Rules: Rules 14(1-3). See Master's Degree by Research Rules for courses administered by the Board of the Graduate Research School: Rules 14(1-3).
The University must be able to contact you while you are in the field.
You may also need to obtain the appropriate documentation, such as a research visa, if you are intending to do research in another country. In some cases this may take several months, so it is wise to apply early.
Facilities
You need to indicate if your project has any special requirements. For Example:
- If you require specialised equipment that is not readily available you will need to indicate how it will be obtained.
- If you need to use specialised techniques, you will need to indicate if there are experts available to teach you these techniques or if you will outsource this.
- If you require access to any special forms of literature that is not available from the UWA Library, you will need to indicate how this literature will be accessed.
You should consider:
- What facilities, resources and skills are available in your school or at UWA?
- What access do you have to facilities, resources and skills outside your school or UWA?
<ore information about accessing UWA Facilities and Resources and Training
Statistics
If you project involves statistical analysis, describe briefly what this analysis is. Will you undertake the analysis yourself? If so, do you require training or support for this analysis. If not, who will undertake this analysis for you?
According to the UWA Rules for Higher Degree by Research, you can enroll in up to 24 points of coursework units if the specified coursework units are necessary for completion of the degree program. Many students enroll in approved statistics units. See Doctor of Philosophy Rules: Rule 11(1). See Master's Degree by Research Rules for courses administered by the Board of the Graduate Research School: Rules 11(1).
A free statistical advice clinic is also offered to postgraduate research students at UWA by the Centre for Applied Statistics. The clinic is intended to provide support and education to postgraduates. In addition to individual consultations, the Centre also offers regular statistics short courses.
Identify the special skills needed for your project
You should assess if you need to develop any particular skills in order to complete your project. Using the skills audit proforma, break down your project into stages, assess your ability to complete each of these stages with the skill set you currently have.
If your audit indicates you require skills development, indicate how you plan to acquire these skills. This could be through coursework, short courses, or one-on-one training t UWA or another research facility.
This example skills audit pro-forma is also provided in a savable/printable document format:
Approvals
You are required to list all approvals required for the project. For example, UWA approvals
are required for use of animals, the participation of human subjects, working with children, genetic manipulation, potentially biohazardous procedures and situations, the use and disposal of potent teratogens and carcinogens, and the use of ionising radiation or other hazardous items.
It is the responsibility of the candidate, the supervisor and the Head of School to ensure that appropriate approvals have been obtained. Similarly, it is essential that all required safety and other training is complete prior to the commencement of the project.
By signing the research proposal the School certifies that all necessary approvals in relation to the attached proposal will be obtained from the appropriate UWA committee and that all safety and other training required by law and/or UWA policy has been completed, prior to commencement of the project.
Where an approval is pending, progress on the application must be incorporated into the annual progress report. Research Proposals can only be provisionally approved until approval is obtained. When approval is obtained, you need to contact the Graduate Research School and provide them with the approval number.
You also need to assess the health and safety risks to you and other persons from your project in accordance with the UWA Safe System of Work. The safety risk assessment and the risk control strategy must be approved by your Supervisor and Head of School (or Graduate Research Coordinator) and kept on file by your Supervisor. The related guidance and General Safety Risk Assessment form for this approval is available online.
More information on the ethics approval process.
Data management
Prior to the commencement of your project, you should complete a Research Data Management Plan. This plan outlines ownership, collection, organisation, storage, backup, retention, disposal and access of the data generated during the course of your project.
For further assistance with research data management, please refer to the Research Data Management Toolkit.
Preparing a research project plan
Create deadlines for each stage of your project so you can work steadily towards completing the project. Your submission date is critical, so when constructing a research project plan try working backwards from this date.
Provide a plan of these deadlines from enrolment to thesis submission. Where appropriate the plan should include time points related to experiments, studies, fieldwork, research communication, statistics courses, lab safety courses, approvals and skills training.
A Gantt chart or timeline is the recommended format for this plan. Gantt chart proformas are available in Excel.
This plan should be most detailed for the first year of candidature. You will be required to provide the details of subsequent 12 month periods in each Annual Report.