How to Write a Successful Research Proposal
From a good idea to a successful research proposal
In my first semester of graduate school, I wrote a research proposal for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program. I had no guidance on how to write a proposal for this very competitive fellowship program. Many websites seem to contradict each other on the guidance that they gave. Ultimately, I was unsuccessful at attaining the fellowship.
The next semester, after I had written multiple academic papers, I then applied for an NIH T-32 Predoctoral Fellowship. When I started working on my proposal, I felt like I had learned more about what I had done wrong on my first proposal and had more guidance on how to write this proposal better. After multiple revisions, the proposal I submitted was successful and I earned a 2-year predoctoral fellowship.
After writing multiple proposals, I want to share the important strategies I learned to create a successful proposal!
Start with a Great Idea
Before you ever start writing your proposal, you need to make sure that you have a great idea. Your idea has to be novel…
