The document provides guidance on how to prepare a strong grant proposal, including outlining key sections such as objectives, significance, methodology, and expected results. It emphasizes establishing clear research hypotheses, justifying the project's significance by describing existing paradigms and literature, and demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed work plan and methodology. Strong proposals also articulate how the research could change current paradigms and have broader scientific and economic impacts.

1. How to prepare convincing grant proposal
Ewa Marcinkowska

2. A central concept in science and the scientific
method is that it must be empirically based on
the evidence of the senses.
Both natural and social sciences use working
hypotheses that are testable by observation and
experiment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism

3. John Locke
(29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704)
Studied at Christ Church, Oxford.
An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1689).
Empiricism in the philosophy
of science emphasizes evidence,
especially as discovered in experiments.

4. Proof
In mathematics, a proof is a deductive
argument for a mathematical statement.
There are no formal proofs in empirical
sciences.

5. Sir Karl Raimund Popper
(28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994)
born in Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary),
died in Kenley in UK.
A theory in the empirical sciences
can never be proven, but it can be
falsified, meaning that it can and should
be scrutinised by decisive experiments.
He considered that if a theory cannot, in
principle, be falsified by criticism, it is
not a scientific theory.

6. A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for
a phenomenon.
For a hypothesis to be a scientific
hypothesis, the scientific method requires
that one can test it.

7. Paradigm is a distinct set of concepts or
thought patterns, including theories,
research methods, postulates, and
standards for what constitutes legitimate
contributions to a field.

8. • What is my research hypothesis?
• Is there any existing paradigm
concerning the field, which I am going to
explore?
• Is it possible that my results will change
the existing paradigm?

10. 1. Objectives: scientific problem aimed
to be solved by the proposed project,
project scientific hypotheses.

11. Clearly state what is/are your research hypothesis/es.

12. 2. Significance: state of the art,
justification for tackling specific scientific
problems by the proposed project,
pioneering nature of the project,
the impact of the project results
on the development of the research field
and scientific discipline,
economic and societal impact.

13. •Describe the existing paradigms in the research field.
•Cite existing research literature.
• Describe how your research can change the existing
paradigm.
•Write, what is new and exceptional in your ideas.
•Discuss, how your results can change the research field
and whether or not they can have any economical impact.

14. 3. Work plan: outline of the work plan,
critical paths, state of pre-existing
and initial research indicating feasibility
of research objectives.

15. • Describe your previous results, which have led you
to this proposal.
• Outline the plan of experiments.
• Clearly state, which results will support your
hypotheses, and which will falsify them.

16. http://ischuller.ucsd.edu/research/new_SC.php

17. 4. Methodology: underlying scientific methodology,
data reduction and treatment schemes,
type and degree of access to the equipment
to be used in the proposed research.

18. • Describe all methods you plan to use.
• State how will you analyze the data.
• Declare how familiar you are with the proposed
methods (cite your previous papers, if possible).
• State how easy will be your access to the
equipment necessary for the project.
• In case of risky methods, propose alternatives.

19. •Alternative solutions

20. Expected results:
• Change of research paradigm in the field
• Publications
• PhD thesis
• etc.

21. 1) Investigator / Staff Costs
2) List of equipment to be purchased and/or built
3) Other costs justification
4) Investigators’ qualifications