PhD research proposal | 5 *essential* elements to make it AWESOME — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00hello my beautiful phd friend so today
2. 0:02we're going to talk about probably one
3. 0:04of the most
4. 0:05requested videos on this channel so far
5. 0:08which is
6. 0:08how to write the perfect phd research
7. 0:12proposal if you're new to this channel
8. 0:15please remember to subscribe
9. 0:16and hit that bell notification because
10. 0:18i'm going to talk about everything i've
11. 0:20learned
12. 0:20through doing a phd spending 11 years in
13. 0:23a postdoc
14. 0:23and i'm going to tell you all of the
15. 0:25dirty little secrets that other people
16. 0:27can't tell you because they're still in
17. 0:29the system
18. 0:30all right let's get on with the content
19. 0:33okay
20. 0:34a phd research proposal now
21. 0:37not every university requires you to do
22. 0:41a phd research proposal a proposal
23. 0:44is kind of a document that is typically
24. 0:47about 2
25. 0:48000 to 4 000 words long and you submit
26. 0:52it to
27. 0:53a phd board and they say yes this person
28. 0:56is capable of doing a phd because they
29. 0:59have demonstrated
30. 1:01that they understand the field they're
31. 1:02going into they understand the knowledge
32. 1:04gap
33. 1:05they as a person with the skills they
34. 1:07bring to this research
35. 1:09proposal match perfectly they they
36. 1:12are academic enough and they've
37. 1:14demonstrated enough skills
38. 1:16that uh we are confident that they will
39. 1:19ultimately make us look good right that
40. 1:22is the main thing which is
41. 1:24making the university or the or the
42. 1:26research department look
43. 1:28good because you are capable
44. 1:31and really that's what this phd proposal
45. 1:33is about
46. 1:34it's not about demonstrating what you
47. 1:37will find
48. 1:38because you don't know that the nature
49. 1:40of research is that you
50. 1:42you kind of explore a question you don't
51. 1:44just dig until you find knowledge
52. 1:46or you can't predict what you're
53. 1:48actually gonna find
54. 1:50you know that's not that's not what
55. 1:51research is um
56. 1:53so really this document if people are
57. 1:55being honest
58. 1:57it's about providing the research
59. 2:00department or the phd admissions
60. 2:02team with confidence okay
61. 2:05so throughout all of these sort of tips
62. 2:08and these
63. 2:09these uh sections that i'm going to talk
64. 2:10about and there's five sections
65. 2:12or five things that i really think you
66. 2:13need to cover
67. 2:15um you are aiming to convince these
68. 2:18people you know they should get a
69. 2:20feeling
70. 2:21right from your document so the document
71. 2:24contains
72. 2:24words and figures and tables
73. 2:27but when they read it they should get a
74. 2:29feeling of confidence and that is
75. 2:31ultimately what this document should
76. 2:34try its hardest to achieve
77. 2:37and i'll talk about that you know as we
78. 2:39go through the five sections but
79. 2:41that's the outcome right is that someone
80. 2:43looks at this goes this person
81. 2:45knows what they're doing they're a great
82. 2:47researcher they look like they've got a
83. 2:49lot of potential
84. 2:50to make our department even better
85. 2:53let's get him on a phd scholarship so
86. 2:56now let's have a look at all of the
87. 2:58different steps
88. 3:00now two thousand to four thousand words
89. 3:03isn't a lot
90. 3:04but check with the specific university
91. 3:06guidelines
92. 3:07um because they may allow you more or
93. 3:09they may not you know they may allow you
94. 3:10to include appendices and all that sort
95. 3:12of stuff
96. 3:13but the first thing in this document
97. 3:16should be a literature review okay now
98. 3:19not a massive one like
99. 3:21in a thesis a literature review is about
100. 3:2320 it's about 20
101. 3:24000 words anyway right is it that much
102. 3:27it's a lot it's like 20 pages so
103. 3:30probably not that much but it's you know
104. 3:32it's a lot of words so what we're doing
105. 3:33is like a mini literature review
106. 3:35what you need to demonstrate to the team
107. 3:38looking at this is that you have not
108. 3:41just
109. 3:42on a whim decided to study this certain
110. 3:45thing
111. 3:45but rather you do have kind of a
112. 3:49base knowledge of the field you're going
113. 3:51into
114. 3:52and so a literature review should be
115. 3:54completely referenced
116. 3:56never just like write out exactly what's
117. 3:58in the papers that you're reading
118. 4:00and also go check out my other video on
119. 4:04how to write a literature review because
120. 4:06the kind of same stuff
121. 4:08in a very sort of high level way apply
122. 4:11to this section
123. 4:12so go check that out i'll put the links
124. 4:14uh wherever they
125. 4:15appear um okay so a literature review
126. 4:19should go through the major processes
127. 4:23the major theories the major
128. 4:26understandings
129. 4:27and the major theories of the field that
130. 4:30you're
131. 4:30entering so it's good to start what i
132. 4:33like to do is start
133. 4:34very very broad and niche down and in
134. 4:37this case you're going to niche down
135. 4:38very quickly so
136. 4:39my research field was renewable energy
137. 4:41so that's where i talked about renewable
138. 4:43energy and depleting fossil fuels
139. 4:45and then we get lower and lower and
140. 4:47lower until you look at
141. 4:49solution processed solar cells is where
142. 4:52i ended up so
143. 4:53we needed to go all the way down very
144. 4:56quickly
145. 4:56and that's what you need to do as well
146. 4:59you need to understand that this
147. 5:03isn't going to be a comprehensive
148. 5:06document
149. 5:07so just speak with a research supervisor
150. 5:12to help guide which bits are the most
151. 5:14important for this research proposal
152. 5:16now that brings me on to the kind of the
153. 5:19next bit which is
154. 5:20feel free to reach out to someone
155. 5:24before you start this process like when
156. 5:27you think i want to do a phd
157. 5:29and i need to submit a research proposal
158. 5:32have a look
159. 5:32for academics in universities that you
160. 5:35want to go to
161. 5:36who would fit well with the question you
162. 5:39think you are going to
163. 5:40ask um they'll help you
164. 5:44sort of in this initial process with the
165. 5:46literature that to be honest with you a
166. 5:47lot of these people
167. 5:49actually have like documents and
168. 5:52reference managers and printouts of
169. 5:55papers that you could probably just
170. 5:57sort of like absorb from them without
171. 5:59having to go and search the literature
172. 6:01too
173. 6:01deep and so yeah go do that i need water
174. 6:12so there we have it that's the
175. 6:14literature review component and the
176. 6:15important thing is
177. 6:16you're setting the foundations for the
178. 6:19next part which is so
179. 6:21very important which is the knowledge
180. 6:24gap
181. 6:25okay so the second part is the knowledge
182. 6:27gap so
183. 6:28you've just laid the foundations what is
184. 6:31currently known about your field and
185. 6:33your area of study and like i said
186. 6:35reach out to a researcher or an academic
187. 6:38that you want to be your supervisor and
188. 6:42they should help you kind of understand
189. 6:44what's the most important things to
190. 6:46include
191. 6:47now the knowledge gap what special
192. 6:51insight are you hoping to get right once
193. 6:53again going back to the filling this
194. 6:55panel of academics with um
195. 6:59with confidence that you know what
196. 7:02you're doing
197. 7:03you need to be able to identify the gap
198. 7:06in the knowledge that is currently
199. 7:09in the literature now that can be
200. 7:12relatively
201. 7:12hard to define and it can be a bit fluid
202. 7:16throughout your phd as you find stuff
203. 7:18but we'll talk about that in a little
204. 7:20bit
205. 7:20um but yeah you have to become crystal
206. 7:23clear
207. 7:24on the research question right um
208. 7:27that will fill the phd panel with so
209. 7:31much
210. 7:32more confidence than you saying ah
211. 7:35you know maybe it's going to be in this
212. 7:37area i'm going to sit down and you know
213. 7:39do questionnaires or do research in this
214. 7:41area
215. 7:42you need to be clear on what your
216. 7:44contribution to the field will be
217. 7:46at the end of the three to four years of
218. 7:49phd
219. 7:50now what this does is it helps
220. 7:53yeah give confidence but also this is
221. 7:56where you should think about
222. 7:58the the preliminary or the provisional
223. 8:01title of your thesis
224. 8:05now i know it's a long way away it's
225. 8:07actually like producing a thesis but
226. 8:09if you can express in about let's say 15
227. 8:13words what your research
228. 8:16will be on that is going to help so much
229. 8:19for the next steps
230. 8:21and also it will help you work out what
231. 8:22your literature review
232. 8:24should cover um and it should flow
233. 8:26naturally so literature review
234. 8:28there should be kind of a natural kind
235. 8:30of feeling
236. 8:31a progression to ah okay now this is
237. 8:34where the gap is
238. 8:35and this is why i need to be in this
239. 8:38research program
240. 8:40so what is significant about your work
241. 8:44should be able to be expressed in about
242. 8:4615
243. 8:47words and once again speak to a
244. 8:49supervisor about this they will help
245. 8:51mold those 15 words but they're going to
246. 8:54be the kind of
247. 8:55hook that you're going to hang
248. 8:57everything else off
249. 8:59and it can take a while to get a
250. 9:02succinct
251. 9:0315 words but here's the important thing
252. 9:06do not go
253. 9:07for fancy clever words instead
254. 9:11just focus on field specific
255. 9:14um terminology that is plainly
256. 9:17expressed all right so we don't want
257. 9:20fancy words that are just going to
258. 9:21confuse people
259. 9:23because remember the people that are
260. 9:24looking at your research proposal may
261. 9:26not be
262. 9:26in the area that you are going to end up
263. 9:30doing your studies in
264. 9:31so plain simple give it to your family
265. 9:35members give it to someone outside of
266. 9:37academia
267. 9:38can they at least get a gist of what
268. 9:39you're talking about if not
269. 9:41then then rework that title but yes
270. 9:44number two
271. 9:45knowledge gap what is significant what
272. 9:47is new what is novel
273. 9:49that you're going to produce or that you
274. 9:50predict you're going to produce based on
275. 9:52the knowledge gap
276. 9:53and the information that is already out
277. 9:56there
278. 9:57the third part that's really important
279. 9:59is the how
280. 10:00and remember that how isn't just like
281. 10:02i'm gonna do some
282. 10:04uh questionnaires or i'm gonna look
283. 10:06through the literature or i'm gonna read
284. 10:08some stuff and report on it like
285. 10:10it has to fill the research panel with
286. 10:14confidence
287. 10:14now the thing is you may change your
288. 10:17methodologies as you go through as
289. 10:19every good scientist should but early on
290. 10:23you need to settle that settle in on
291. 10:25what will actually work based on what
292. 10:27has been done in the past in your
293. 10:28literature review
294. 10:30so this is a great way of talking about
295. 10:32anything
296. 10:33special or new you bring in terms of
297. 10:36methodology it may be
298. 10:38that no one has done this in a certain
299. 10:40way and the research group that you're
300. 10:42joining
301. 10:43can now do it in a new way there's a new
302. 10:45instrument there's a new technique
303. 10:46there's a new insight into the
304. 10:49methodology
305. 10:50aspect and that's where you kind of have
306. 10:53to think about
307. 10:54uh how like the nuts and bolts of how
308. 10:57you will
309. 10:57actually get an answer to your research
310. 11:01question
311. 11:03you may have to include ethical aspects
312. 11:05so in the sciences i didn't have to do
313. 11:07any animal studies or anything so
314. 11:09i had no ethical sort of issues or
315. 11:13requirements but you may if you're
316. 11:15dealing with animals if you're dealing
317. 11:17with
318. 11:17um questionnaires with people if you're
319. 11:20doing psychology sort of things
320. 11:21experiments then
321. 11:23you need to put in the how that you
322. 11:25understand about these
323. 11:27ethical aspects as well it may just be a
324. 11:29couple of sentences on how
325. 11:31you're going to do that but that needs
326. 11:33to once again
327. 11:34fill this panel with confidence the
328. 11:37fourth thing
329. 11:38comes down to you
330. 11:41why you why should
331. 11:44this panel get you out of all of the
332. 11:48other people that may have applied
333. 11:50to do a similar thing and this is where
334. 11:53you really have to sell yourself and
335. 11:55it's probably one of the hardest things
336. 11:57you need to do
337. 11:59uh in the states in the us the culture
338. 12:02is not of boasting but one of promotion
339. 12:05self-promotion confident uh expression
340. 12:08of someone's special
341. 12:10skills however in the uk and australia
342. 12:13and other cultures it can seem a little
343. 12:15bit
344. 12:16garish and a bit gross to kind of put
345. 12:19yourself out there
346. 12:20in australia we have like the tall poppy
347. 12:22syndrome
348. 12:23where people love cutting down
349. 12:25successful people
350. 12:26and it can mean that a lot of people
351. 12:29don't do this bit very well
352. 12:31but it doesn't just mean like you as a
353. 12:33person like what skills have you learned
354. 12:35up until right now that can help you
355. 12:39answer this question
356. 12:40what do you bring what special
357. 12:42combination now the thing about
358. 12:44science is that it's becoming
359. 12:46increasingly
360. 12:47interdisciplinary which means that
361. 12:49there's venn diagrams of like
362. 12:51physics and chemistry and nanotechnology
363. 12:54in my case and
364. 12:54i sat right in the middle so i could say
365. 12:57that i've got experience in all of these
366. 12:59areas
367. 13:00and my phd sits right in the middle of
368. 13:03that and
369. 13:04i'm uniquely positioned to do that
370. 13:07because
371. 13:07of the honors and the masters projects
372. 13:11that i decided to undertake
373. 13:13and so really it's about convincing
374. 13:16people that not only is the research
375. 13:18great but
376. 13:19it's you are the you are the right
377. 13:21person
378. 13:22to be doing it no one else um and feel
379. 13:25free to boast a little bit like it's
380. 13:27okay to be like and i'm good at this
381. 13:29i know that i've got the skills that's
382. 13:32required to do this properly
383. 13:35yeah what experience have you got also
384. 13:37goes hand in hand
385. 13:39with the research environment
386. 13:42so i kind of look at it like this like
387. 13:45you have all of these special skills
388. 13:47but the research environment that you're
389. 13:49entering so the research group
390. 13:51the research sort of department that
391. 13:54you're going to enter
392. 13:55what combination of skills have they got
393. 13:59and tools and methodologies and special
394. 14:01equipment do they have
395. 14:02which means that it will catalyze your
396. 14:06uh your power and your your momentum
397. 14:10um and your i guess your your ability to
398. 14:13succeed
399. 14:14like that's what it comes down to
400. 14:15remember so how with your
401. 14:17individual kind of experience and
402. 14:20combination of skills if i was to place
403. 14:23you and plant you
404. 14:24in a certain research environment how is
405. 14:27that going to make
406. 14:28you so much more better and yeah speak
407. 14:32to the research group that you're
408. 14:33thinking of joining speak to the
409. 14:35department and ask what
410. 14:36skills they have what equipment they
411. 14:39have if they've
412. 14:40applied for any special equipment or
413. 14:43or invested in anything that makes them
414. 14:45stand out in
415. 14:46their sort of area and you can use that
416. 14:49in your research proposal to be like not
417. 14:51only am i just the right person to do
418. 14:53this
419. 14:53but this is the perfect place to do it
420. 14:55because nowhere else in the world
421. 14:58has this combination of skills
422. 15:01or academics or whatever it is and
423. 15:03together
424. 15:04we're gonna be a winner and number five
425. 15:08and probably one of the last things is
426. 15:10all about
427. 15:10timing and potentially budget right
428. 15:14so um here all we're trying to do is
429. 15:17fill them with confidence that you have
430. 15:18an
431. 15:19understanding of how long things take
432. 15:22and that you have a couple of risk
433. 15:26management stop points so it's like at
434. 15:28the end of the first year i should have
435. 15:30achieved
436. 15:31you know an understanding of the uh
437. 15:34the area of the field of the research
438. 15:36field i should have produced a
439. 15:38literature review
440. 15:39i should have understood all of the
441. 15:42techniques i'm using and demonstrated
442. 15:44expertise
443. 15:44and that looks like this you know in
444. 15:46terms of i would have generated
445. 15:49enough data to go towards a conference
446. 15:53or a poster presentation at a conference
447. 15:56like those sort of things
448. 15:58are what they're looking for and then
449. 15:59like you know um you can
450. 16:01word them right this is the little trick
451. 16:03that that some people do is you can word
452. 16:05them quite
453. 16:06openly now for example my research
454. 16:10key performance indicator was i'm going
455. 16:14to produce a
456. 16:15first generation transparent electrode
457. 16:19now first generation is open to
458. 16:22interpretation right
459. 16:24so it means that if i produce an
460. 16:26electrode
461. 16:28that satisfies all of the criteria that
462. 16:30i want
463. 16:31that is first generation boom so i have
464. 16:34to make one electrode to satisfy
465. 16:36that now clearly you know you don't want
466. 16:37to like piss that around and not
467. 16:40actually deliver because that will just
468. 16:42make your phd harder on yourself later
469. 16:45on
470. 16:45but what it does do is give you a bit of
471. 16:47flexibility all right so
472. 16:49use terms like i'm going to use i'm
473. 16:51going to create a first generation
474. 16:53solar cell i'm going to i'm going to
475. 16:54create a first
476. 16:56um a first
477. 16:59attempt or maybe not attempt but yeah
478. 17:01you know what i mean like
479. 17:02use those sort of words um i'm gonna
480. 17:06complete my preliminary study on
481. 17:08something like
482. 17:09use open language which means you're not
483. 17:12locked into numbers and figures
484. 17:14um early on because yeah you just you
485. 17:17just trip
486. 17:18yourself up um and then of course you
487. 17:20can say later on in the next six months
488. 17:22we are going to produce a second
489. 17:23generation solar cell a third generation
490. 17:25like
491. 17:26it just means that everything's moving
492. 17:27in the right way um
493. 17:29and that you have thought about the
494. 17:32process and the steps that you need to
495. 17:34go through to get
496. 17:36to the end result which is right
497. 17:38remember in academia only two things
498. 17:40matter
499. 17:41papers and grant money so if you can say
500. 17:44that i'm going to work towards a certain
501. 17:45number of papers
502. 17:47i'm going which should you know my
503. 17:48research should result in two
504. 17:50papers in quarter um one
505. 17:54journals or a you know a class journals
506. 17:58and i will be applying for different
507. 18:01grants
508. 18:02you know i've identified that these
509. 18:03grants could potentially fit in with the
510. 18:05research
511. 18:06put that in they love it they absolutely
512. 18:09love that stuff
513. 18:10because it's what makes academia go
514. 18:12round
515. 18:13papers and grants are the currency of
516. 18:15the academic world
517. 18:17and if you say you're gonna do that
518. 18:19they're gonna love it
519. 18:21trust me okay so there are
520. 18:24the five things that are gonna make an
521. 18:27absolute
522. 18:28killer research proposal with all of the
523. 18:31little
524. 18:31tips and tricks inside there as well so
525. 18:33let me know in the comments
526. 18:35uh what you think a research proposal
527. 18:38should be
528. 18:38let other people know about your
529. 18:40research how it sort of translated how
530. 18:43it differed from the proposal i think is
531. 18:45also really interesting
532. 18:47and because you know research shifts and
533. 18:49changes and it's so
534. 18:50important that it does because it means
535. 18:53that you know you're doing research
536. 18:54you're not just following
537. 18:56a path with you know blindly um and so
538. 18:59yes
539. 18:59those are the those are the top five
540. 19:01things that should be in your research
541. 19:03proposal but remember
542. 19:04ultimately it is to fill the panel that
543. 19:07is looking over this
544. 19:08with confidence that you know what
545. 19:10you're doing
546. 19:11that the environment you're going to be
547. 19:13placed in will catalyze
548. 19:15your um your outputs and
549. 19:18that you understand the research field
550. 19:20and the knowledge gap
551. 19:22that you are uniquely qualified to fill
552. 19:26all right if you've liked this video
553. 19:28please remember to give it a thumbs up
554. 19:29remember to subscribe as well because
555. 19:31i think next week i'm gonna do the like
556. 19:34general tips for writing a research
557. 19:36proposal
558. 19:37you know storytelling the
559. 19:40uh the structure how you make it
560. 19:42friendly but
561. 19:43but kind of impactful for um for a phd
562. 19:47admin panel so yeah i'm going to do that
563. 19:50so
564. 19:51subscribe because i'm going to update
565. 19:52this uh this topic
566. 19:54regularly because i think it's really
567. 19:56important and yeah also go check out
568. 19:59publish perish or podcast which is my
569. 20:02podcast
570. 20:02that where i talk about early career
571. 20:04research with two of my
572. 20:06best friends in the academic world and i
573. 20:09we we have a ball and
574. 20:11we've just published our 100th episode
575. 20:13as well so go check out that that would
576. 20:15be awesome
577. 20:16all right i shall see you in the next
578. 20:18video