All research proposals must be based on this template. Research proposals must be between 8- 10 pages including a reference list.
Title of the project
1. Main objective and summary of the project
(Present the main objective of your project and a brief summary, explaining how you intend to attain this goal. The purpose is to give the reader sufficient information to decide whether the project is of interest. You need to be clear and precise in formulating the project objectives. )
2. Background to the project
(Provide a brief account of the existing knowledge in the field the project is part of and show how the project will contribute to new knowledge. Explain how your project is relevant to the research at the Faculty of Education and International Studies – for individual researchers, research groups or projects.)
3. Theoretical framework
(Outline the theoretical foundation of the project and the reasons you have chosen this particular foundation.)
4. Research question(s) and expected findings (hypothesis)
(Describe the question(s) you want to answer through your project, and briefly outline what answer(s) you expect to find or what outcomes you might expect on the basis of previous research and theoretical background. Your research questions or hypotheses should focus and delimit the topic.)
5. Method
(Give an account of the methodological foundation for your project and any research-ethical problems linked to the project. Describe the underlying data, source material and sampling approaches that will be used and how these will be collected and analyzed)
6. Proposed dissemination
(Outline your proposed outputs: your plans for communicating / publishing your doctoral project – articles, monographs, lectures, etc.)
7. Progress plan
(Outline briefly how you intend to organize your doctoral work over six semesters, including any planned or anticipated periods of study outside OsloMet and/or field work. We do not expect you to know about individual courses, seminars, etc. that will be included in the training component, but you should include course work in your overall timeframe.)
Total: no more than 8-10 pages in Times New Roman, 12 point type, with one and a half line spacing (including reference list. The reference list must be sorted alphabetically by author.). It is up to you to decide how they are distributed among the different sections of the research proposal.
Some general guidelines
A PhD proposal is generally developed when applying for a funded PhD position. This same proposal is used for applying for admission to the PhD program in Educational Sciences for Teacher Education at the Faculty of Education and international Studies. You need to keep in mind, both with regard to proposals for funding and admission to the PhD program, that you will need to convince the reader that the proposed research and the research objective(s) are important and in some way original or move beyond the current research. How will your proposed study make a contribution to the research field? You also need to be aware of the time limit in doing a PhD and that you cannot be overly ambitious, in total you have three years to complete the work and the reader needs to see that you will be able to complete the study within this time limit.
Make sure to use enough space in the proposal to discuss your research design, research methods, sampling and so forth. Here you need to reference the relevant and up to date literature regarding research methods and research design. Be specific in terms of what you are planning to do and how you will obtain the data you seek. What are the sampling procedures you will use and how will you recruit your participants. Also, think about any ethical issues as well as how you might analyze the data. Be as specific as possible in this section.
You will also need a realistic time plan, which should include the research process, fieldwork/data collection, analysis writing up, and dissemination plan as well as course work, all within the space of three years.
Oslo 13.08.2019,
Professor Halla B. Holmarsdottir, Vice-Dean of Research at the Faculty of Education and International Studies, OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University
