How to write research proposals for both scientific proposals and business. Just a basic guideline to follow.

1. How to Write a
Research Proposal?

2. I. Why Research Proposal?
To be certain of your direction
in research

3. II. What is a Research Proposal?
Simply, your research proposal should reflect:
1 • what you are going to research
1 • why you are going to research this particular area
1 • what is the significance of researching this area
3 • how you are going to conduct the research

4. III. Research Proposal Outline
(15-20 pages)
• Title page
• 1.0 Project Background/Introduction
*Objectives
• 2.0 Literature Review
• 3.0 Methodology
• 4.0 Expected Outcomes
• References
• Work Schedule/Attachments

5. Title Page
Title
A Proposal by
……..
Name
Matric number
Department of Biological Sciences
Faculty of Science and Technology
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
2010

6. 1.0 Project Background/
Introduction
– Statement of the problem or
gap in the current research in
your field of study.
- Introductory paragraphs
- Statement of the Problem
- Significance of the Study

7. Focal point of a research proposal:
Introductory
paragraphs
• When writing the
• The primary goal: introduction, put
to catch the attention yourself in your
of the readers and to reader's position -
get them "turned on" would you continue
about the subject. reading?

8. Statement of the Problem
• It is just one sentence (with
several paragraphs of
elaboration).
• You are looking for
something wrong.
....or something
that needs close
attention
....or existing
methods that no
longer seem to be
working.

9. Significance of the Study
• It points out how your
study relates to the larger
issues
• The significance of the study
answers the questions:
- Why is your study important?
- To whom is it important?
- What benefit(s) will occur if
your study is done?

10. 1.1 Objectives
• A few typical statements are:
The goal of this study is to...
... overcome the difficulty with ...
... discover what ...
... understand the causes or effects of ...
... refine our current understanding of ...
... provide a new interpretation of ...
... understand what makes ___ successful or
unsuccessful

11. 2.0 Literature Review
– Context in which the problem
arises; historical and current
researches in the field
• Important - shows what previous
researchers have discovered (and
have not discovered).
• *One of the key elements that
proposal readers look at, when
deciding whether or not to approve a
proposal.
Never say that your area is so new
!!!
that no research exists.

15. Contoh:
• Detection and identification of
antimicrobial compounds in fungi
isolated from Avicennia alba

16. Contoh:
• Antioxidative activities of
Melastoma malabathricum, L
(senduduk) callus cultures

17. Contoh:
• Determination of nutritive value of
several marine microalgae (Chlorella,
Pavlova and Nano).

18. Contoh:
• Isolation and Characterization of
Insecticide ( Carbofuran ) degrading
bacteria from Malaysian Soil.

19. Contoh:
• Isolation and identification of free-
living amoebae in water at Setiu
Wetland Terengganu

20. Contoh:
• Recovery of bioactive compounds
from bacteria associated with
sponges

21. Contoh:
• Characterization and purification of
polysaccharide from aquatic plants

22. Trace mineral profiles of the bivalve species
Chamelea gallina and Donax trunculus

23. Antioxidant activities of aqueous extracts of
selected plants

24. Antioxidant activities of aqueous extracts of selected plants

25. Toxicity and bioaccumulation of copper and lead in five marine microalgae

26. BRACKISH-WATER MOLLUSKS OF SURAT THANI
PROVINCE, SOUTHERN THAILAND

27. Butterflies and diurnal moths along road verges:
Does road type affect diversity and abundance?

28. fragmentation of semi-natural grasslands (Rassi et al.,2001). Butterflies, in particular, have suffered from the decline of
meadow area resulting from the rationalisation of farming methods (Pitka¨nen et al., 2001; Saarinen, 2002). This
development has increased the importance of road verges and other linear elements in the landscape, such as field verges,
power line cuttings and railroad embankments, in the conservation of biodiversity.
The Finnish road network, totalling approximately 384,000 km in 2003, consists of public roads (20%), urban streets (7%)
and private roads (73%) (Heinio¨ and Oras, 2003). Although private roads predominate, the public roads, which carry 66%
of all road traffic in Finland, have the widest verges under the regular management organised by the Finnish Road
Administration.
In the absence of precise data we have estimated the area of mown verges along the public roads as 85,000 ha (Jantunen et
al., 2004). Including the private roads, urban streets and other inherent structures such as intersections, lay-bys and road-
cuttings, the area of managed roadside habitats in Finland comes to approximately 140,000 ha, which is sevenfold in
comparison to the remaining area of semi-natural grasslands (Vainio et al., 2001).
For butterflies, road verges provide large quantities of open habitats, but their quality is reduced by many physical and
chemical features, such as extreme microclimatic conditions (Kontiokari, 1992), traffic-induced dust and pollutants
(Koeleman et al., 1999; Askling et al., 2001), de-icing salts in the soil (Liem et al.,1985) and road kills (Mckenna et al.,
2001; Ries et al.,2001). The structure and nutrient composition of the soil, together with mowing once or twice a year,
however, are features that meadows and road verges have in common.
In Finland, the roadside vegetation is mown between mid-June and September, the cut material is rarely removed and bushes
and other woody plants are also cut at regular intervals of 3–5 years (Finnish Road administration, 2000). Although mowing
is considered to increase plant diversity (Parr and Way, 1988; Persson, 1995), no thorough investigations of the road verge
flora have been conducted in Finland. A diverse flora creates the foundation for a rich fauna of butterflies in the form of
nectar resources for adults and food plants for larvae. These relationships have been well researched in agricultural
environments, but few studies on butterfly communities along roads have as yet been made (Munguira and Thomas, 1992;
Gerell, 1997; Bak et al., 1998).
We studied communities of butterflies and day-active moths along the verges of public roads differing in respect to the
management regime, the size of the road and the width of the verge. Based on the importance of habitat patch area in
butterfly metapopulations (e.g., Hill et al., 1996; Thomas and Hanski, 1997; Wahlberg et al., 2002), the main hypothesis was
that the wider the road and its verge, the higher the species richness and abundance of the verge fauna. The most important
environmental factors related to high species richness and population densities of Lepidoptera, meadow species in particular,
were also determined.

29. 3.0 Methodology
– Methodology you will use to address
the problem / key research questions
• Instrumentation
• Procedure and time frame
• Analysis plan
• Validity and reliability
• Discuss with your supervisor

30. Methodology
State clearly how you plan to conduct your
research:
– What methodology are you using? Why?
– What information needs to be gathered?
– Will this data be applicable to the research
questions?
– Who or what will you use as the data source?
– How will you collect data or construct
experiments?
– What controls are in place?
– How will the data be analysed?
– Do you need ethics approval?

31. 4.0 Expected Outcomes
– Predicted results
– Expected contribution to knowledge
References (*Panduan PITA)
– how to cite in text
- how to list them
Work Schedule
– Time-frame and (special) resources

33. References Ramachandra, T.V., Ahalya, N. & Kanamadi, R.D. 2006.
Biosorption: techniques and mechanisms. ……….
Kumar, S.M. 2008. Biosorption.
http://www.cheresources.com/biosorption.shtml
[27 February 2010].
• Kuyucak, N. & Volesky, B. 1989. Biosorption of heavy metals.
Biorecovery 1:189-204.

34. Final research schedule
Work Schedule
Month JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR
/
Activit
ies
Field
Survey
and
Sampli
ng
Germin
ation
Trial
Data
Input
Data
Analysi
s
Final *** Insert other compulsory items – written proposal submission and
Report preparation, proposal presentation and preparation, final presentation
Writing and preparation etc.

35. • Mind your English
– Proofread your
proposal
Thank you