Writing a research proposalDr Geoff Walton, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University and

Information Literacy Group

&

Dr Graham Walton, Head of Planning and Resources, University Library and Honorary Research Fellow (Centre for Information

Management), Loughborough University

CILIP , 12th September 2014

Writing a research proposal• What we are going to talk about

• ILG research bursaries and LIRG funding • What are they key characteristics of a good

research proposal?• Creating a research idea • Dissemination strategy• Concluding remarks

• Q&A

• Group work throughout

ILG Research Bursaries• £20,000 available annually

• Bids of up to a £10,000 maximum

• Support practitioners (who are ILG members) to conduct well framed research

• Approaches can be small scale action research to larger scale quantitative studies (or a mixture of the two).

• Info at…• http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/

• More info and informal chat…• Dr Geoff Walton: geoff.walton@northumbria.ac.uk • Dr Jane Secker: j.secker@lse.ac.uk

• Deadline for bids: 1st December 2014 & 1st July 2015

LIRG Research Award• Bids of up to £2500 available (co-sponsored by by LIRG, Health Libraries

Group and PTFS Europe)

• To encourage research and innovation in library and information science (particularly about improving the accessibility, retrievability and usefulness of information)

• To defray research expenses or to fund attendance at high level meetings or to fund a study tour. However, a clear overall aim for the research must be stated.

• Info at https://sites.google.com/site/lirgweb/home/awards/lirg-research-award• More info and informal chat… Dr Alison Brettle, a.brettle@salford.ac.uk

Deadline for bids: 1 December 2014

What are they key characteristics of a good research proposal?

Creating a research idea • To have a research proposal accepted you need to tell a good

research story. • One way is to write your proposal in the style of…

• …The Daily Mail

Activity – creating an outstanding summary

• The heart of the research proposal is the summary (sometimes called a lay summary) or abstract

• This is how you will probably begin to create your research proposal

• Your research abstract must have high impact to ensure success

• You need to be able to communicate your idea(s) clearly and concisely

• So….What would you say are the top tips you would follow to ensure that your research summary/lay summary/ abstract is crystal clear and readable?

Dissemination strategy

• Why is it important to disseminate your research?

• What ways can we use to disseminate?• The most successful research proposals have

imaginative and creative dissemination strategies

Activity – creating a dissemination strategy

• What avenues/channels/methods would you use to disseminate information/new/findings about your project?

Creating a dissemination strategy - examples

• AMORES http://www.amores-project.eu/ • And the Dr Said…

http://www.andthedoctorsaid.org

Any questions?

Resources Research proposal writing Nottingham Universityhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pgstudy/how-to-apply/how-to-write-a-research-proposal.aspx Monash Universityhttp://www.monash.edu.au/education/research/degrees/proposal-writing/ Edinburgh Universityhttp://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.58205!/fileManager/HowToWriteProposal.pdf

Juliet Eve. Writing a research proposal: planning and communicating your research ideas effectively.

http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/92

Gunning fog index – calculates how off-putting your text is to read:

http://gunning-fog-index.com/

How it works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index