nih format for research proposal

• About Grants
• How To Apply - Application Guide

How to Apply - Application Guide

Use the application instructions found on this page along with the guidance in the funding opportunity to submit grant applications to NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Prepare to Apply

• Systems and Roles
• Find Grant Funding
• Understand Funding Opportunities
• Types of Applications
• Submission Options
• Obtain Software

Write Application

• Write Your Application
• How to Find Forms
• Develop Your Budget
• Format Attachments
• Rules for Text Fields
• Page Limits
• Data Tables
• Reference Letters
• Biosketches
• How to Submit, Track, and View
• How We Check for Completeness
• Changed/Corrected Applications
• Standard Due Dates
• Submission Policies
• Dealing with System Issues

• Application Submission Presentations
• Tips for Success Video Series
• Annotated Form Sets
• Samples: Applications, Attachments, and other Documents
• Contacting NIH Staff
• Application Form Instruction Archive

This page last updated on: October 25, 2022

• Bookmark & Share
• E-mail Updates
• Help Downloading Files
• Privacy Notice
• Accessibility
• National Institutes of Health (NIH), 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
• NIH... Turning Discovery Into Health

• Utility Menu

6b604b7f91d918e5639cf90ab80a98b4

Harvard t.h. chan school of public health research administration.

• Institutional Info
• eRA Commons Setup
• NIH Samples

9d9ee58dac12ca6107d51197bc45ef8d

Source: NIAID Website

NIH & NIAID Sample Applications & Other Documents

Several NIAID investigators have graciously agreed to share their exceptional applications and summary statements as samples to help the research community. Refer to  NIAID's Application Samples webpage to see the full list of available sample applications, attachments, summary statements, forms, sharing plans, letters, emails, and more.  

The text of these applications is copyrighted. You may use it only for nonprofit educational purposes provided the document remains unchanged and the PI, the grantee organization, and NIAID are credited.

• Sample Cancer Epidemiology Grant Applications
• Sample Behavioral Research Grant Applications
• Sample Implementation Science Research Applications
• Annotated SF 424 Grant Application Forms
• Biosketch Format Pages, Instructions and Samples
• Reference Letters 
• Sample Data Tables for Training Grant Applications
• Additional Senior/Key Person Profile Format   – for over 100 senior/key people
• Additional Performance Site Format   – for over 300 performance sites
• Other Support Format Page
• Scientific Rigor Examples
• Authentication Plan Examples
• Examples of Data Sharing Plans
• Examples of Project Leadership Plans for Multiple PI Grant Applications
• Example calculations in the  Usage of Person Months  questions and answers
• Examples of Allowable Appendix Materials
• Sample Project Outcomes Description  for RPPR
• Worksheet for Review of the Vertebrate Animal Section (VAS)
• Sample Animal Study Proposal

NIAID Samples

• Sample Data Sharing Plan
• Genomic Data Sharing Plan (GDS) Examples and Templates  and  Complex Sample Data Sharing Plans
• Complex Model Organisms Sharing Plan
• Model Organisms Sharing Plan for Mice
• Simple Model Organisms Sharing Plan
• Sample Letter to Document Training in the Protection of Human Subjects
• Withdrawal of an Application Sample Form Letter
• Sample Just-in-Time Email From NIH
• Sample NIAID Request for Just-in-Time Information
• Preparing for a Foreign Organization System (FOS) Review
• Subaward Agreement Forms   from the Federal Demonstration Partnership
• DMID Quality Management Guidance and Tools
• Find Funding
• Funding Sources
• Proposal Deadlines
• PI Eligibility
• Limited Submissions
• Letters of Support
• Statement of Work (SOW)
• eRA Commons
• NIH Submission Systems
• NSF Applications

Research Proposal

Purpose of the proposal

The research proposal is the initial plan of your thesis project and is written in conjunction with both your NIH and U.K. mentors during August and September during your time at the NIH. The research proposal is your own work. It is essential that all principal parties involved in your research achieve initial agreement on the scope of the thesis project. Writing the research proposal:

• Focuses the attention on the entire research project, not just the next experiment.
• Ensures that a comprehensive review of the literature is conducted.
• Establishes an agreement with both mentors on the scope of the thesis.
• Begins development of technical writing skills.
• Begins development of grant writing skills.

The research proposal also pushes you to think about what is known in the field, how you will contribute new information, and what logical steps must be taken to accomplish your research goals. Students are strongly advised to incorporate alternative strategies to accomplish their research goal.

Format of the research proposal

The proposal length should be no fewer than five pages and no more than ten, excluding tables, figures and references. The proposal should be clear and concise and contain specific aims of what you plan to accomplish during your thesis research.

• Actually quite important - searched and indexed
• Creates an initial impression  
• Can be thought of as a mini-proposal
• Written for a more general audience
• Written last but NOT at the last minute  
• State the explicit hypotheses and how they will be tested
• A bullet point approach is very effective to articulate exactly what you plan to do - it may include a small elaboration
• Often includes a mini-introduction
• Often the "make or break" section for proposals that go through a grant review process
• Typically 2 to 4 specific aims for a thesis
• Success of your work will be measured against whether you accomplish the aims
• Also plays the role of "tell them what you are going to tell them"  
• Sets up the "story" you want the reader to read - lead them toward your research vision
• Establishes you as an authority/ i.e. one who is well-read on the topic
• Shows that you are cognizant of the most important work already published on the topic
• Establishes for the reader the importance of the work
• Helps the reader understand the logical next steps of your specific aims
• Focuses more on what has been done, but also allows for your contributions or unique perspectives  
• Demonstrates that you are capable of deploying the proposed research methods
• Shows the quality and quantity of data already acquired
• Continues to build the case for the feasibility and logic of your proposal
• Include relevant small tables and figures as needed
• Larger data sections can be added as appendices  
• Explains the methodologies to be used to accomplish the aims
• Two separate areas must be covered; these may be interwoven or presented as distinct sections
• Conceptual and experimental design
• Details of the methods
• Should be tied absolutely and unmistakably to specific aims
• Should acknowledge potential barriers and pitfalls and how you plan to get around them
• If you are testing alternative hypotheses, make it very clear how the experiments will differentiate between them  
• Choose carefully - more is not necessarily better
• Important to have a balance between papers of historical importance and more current developments in the field  

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Indian J Anaesth
• v.60(9); 2016 Sep

How to write a research proposal?

Department of Anaesthesiology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Devika Rani Duggappa

Writing the proposal of a research work in the present era is a challenging task due to the constantly evolving trends in the qualitative research design and the need to incorporate medical advances into the methodology. The proposal is a detailed plan or ‘blueprint’ for the intended study, and once it is completed, the research project should flow smoothly. Even today, many of the proposals at post-graduate evaluation committees and application proposals for funding are substandard. A search was conducted with keywords such as research proposal, writing proposal and qualitative using search engines, namely, PubMed and Google Scholar, and an attempt has been made to provide broad guidelines for writing a scientifically appropriate research proposal.

INTRODUCTION

A clean, well-thought-out proposal forms the backbone for the research itself and hence becomes the most important step in the process of conduct of research.[ 1 ] The objective of preparing a research proposal would be to obtain approvals from various committees including ethics committee [details under ‘Research methodology II’ section [ Table 1 ] in this issue of IJA) and to request for grants. However, there are very few universally accepted guidelines for preparation of a good quality research proposal. A search was performed with keywords such as research proposal, funding, qualitative and writing proposals using search engines, namely, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus.

Five ‘C’s while writing a literature review

BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A proposal needs to show how your work fits into what is already known about the topic and what new paradigm will it add to the literature, while specifying the question that the research will answer, establishing its significance, and the implications of the answer.[ 2 ] The proposal must be capable of convincing the evaluation committee about the credibility, achievability, practicality and reproducibility (repeatability) of the research design.[ 3 ] Four categories of audience with different expectations may be present in the evaluation committees, namely academic colleagues, policy-makers, practitioners and lay audiences who evaluate the research proposal. Tips for preparation of a good research proposal include; ‘be practical, be persuasive, make broader links, aim for crystal clarity and plan before you write’. A researcher must be balanced, with a realistic understanding of what can be achieved. Being persuasive implies that researcher must be able to convince other researchers, research funding agencies, educational institutions and supervisors that the research is worth getting approval. The aim of the researcher should be clearly stated in simple language that describes the research in a way that non-specialists can comprehend, without use of jargons. The proposal must not only demonstrate that it is based on an intelligent understanding of the existing literature but also show that the writer has thought about the time needed to conduct each stage of the research.[ 4 , 5 ]

CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The contents or formats of a research proposal vary depending on the requirements of evaluation committee and are generally provided by the evaluation committee or the institution.

In general, a cover page should contain the (i) title of the proposal, (ii) name and affiliation of the researcher (principal investigator) and co-investigators, (iii) institutional affiliation (degree of the investigator and the name of institution where the study will be performed), details of contact such as phone numbers, E-mail id's and lines for signatures of investigators.

The main contents of the proposal may be presented under the following headings: (i) introduction, (ii) review of literature, (iii) aims and objectives, (iv) research design and methods, (v) ethical considerations, (vi) budget, (vii) appendices and (viii) citations.[ 4 ]

Introduction

It is also sometimes termed as ‘need for study’ or ‘abstract’. Introduction is an initial pitch of an idea; it sets the scene and puts the research in context.[ 6 ] The introduction should be designed to create interest in the reader about the topic and proposal. It should convey to the reader, what you want to do, what necessitates the study and your passion for the topic.[ 7 ] Some questions that can be used to assess the significance of the study are: (i) Who has an interest in the domain of inquiry? (ii) What do we already know about the topic? (iii) What has not been answered adequately in previous research and practice? (iv) How will this research add to knowledge, practice and policy in this area? Some of the evaluation committees, expect the last two questions, elaborated under a separate heading of ‘background and significance’.[ 8 ] Introduction should also contain the hypothesis behind the research design. If hypothesis cannot be constructed, the line of inquiry to be used in the research must be indicated.

Review of literature

It refers to all sources of scientific evidence pertaining to the topic in interest. In the present era of digitalisation and easy accessibility, there is an enormous amount of relevant data available, making it a challenge for the researcher to include all of it in his/her review.[ 9 ] It is crucial to structure this section intelligently so that the reader can grasp the argument related to your study in relation to that of other researchers, while still demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. It is preferable to summarise each article in a paragraph, highlighting the details pertinent to the topic of interest. The progression of review can move from the more general to the more focused studies, or a historical progression can be used to develop the story, without making it exhaustive.[ 1 ] Literature should include supporting data, disagreements and controversies. Five ‘C's may be kept in mind while writing a literature review[ 10 ] [ Table 1 ].

Aims and objectives

The research purpose (or goal or aim) gives a broad indication of what the researcher wishes to achieve in the research. The hypothesis to be tested can be the aim of the study. The objectives related to parameters or tools used to achieve the aim are generally categorised as primary and secondary objectives.

Research design and method

The objective here is to convince the reader that the overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the research problem and to impress upon the reader that the methodology/sources chosen are appropriate for the specific topic. It should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

In this section, the methods and sources used to conduct the research must be discussed, including specific references to sites, databases, key texts or authors that will be indispensable to the project. There should be specific mention about the methodological approaches to be undertaken to gather information, about the techniques to be used to analyse it and about the tests of external validity to which researcher is committed.[ 10 , 11 ]

The components of this section include the following:[ 4 ]

Population and sample

Population refers to all the elements (individuals, objects or substances) that meet certain criteria for inclusion in a given universe,[ 12 ] and sample refers to subset of population which meets the inclusion criteria for enrolment into the study. The inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly defined. The details pertaining to sample size are discussed in the article “Sample size calculation: Basic priniciples” published in this issue of IJA.

Data collection

The researcher is expected to give a detailed account of the methodology adopted for collection of data, which include the time frame required for the research. The methodology should be tested for its validity and ensure that, in pursuit of achieving the results, the participant's life is not jeopardised. The author should anticipate and acknowledge any potential barrier and pitfall in carrying out the research design and explain plans to address them, thereby avoiding lacunae due to incomplete data collection. If the researcher is planning to acquire data through interviews or questionnaires, copy of the questions used for the same should be attached as an annexure with the proposal.

Rigor (soundness of the research)

This addresses the strength of the research with respect to its neutrality, consistency and applicability. Rigor must be reflected throughout the proposal.

It refers to the robustness of a research method against bias. The author should convey the measures taken to avoid bias, viz. blinding and randomisation, in an elaborate way, thus ensuring that the result obtained from the adopted method is purely as chance and not influenced by other confounding variables.

Consistency

Consistency considers whether the findings will be consistent if the inquiry was replicated with the same participants and in a similar context. This can be achieved by adopting standard and universally accepted methods and scales.

Applicability

Applicability refers to the degree to which the findings can be applied to different contexts and groups.[ 13 ]

Data analysis

This section deals with the reduction and reconstruction of data and its analysis including sample size calculation. The researcher is expected to explain the steps adopted for coding and sorting the data obtained. Various tests to be used to analyse the data for its robustness, significance should be clearly stated. Author should also mention the names of statistician and suitable software which will be used in due course of data analysis and their contribution to data analysis and sample calculation.[ 9 ]

Ethical considerations

Medical research introduces special moral and ethical problems that are not usually encountered by other researchers during data collection, and hence, the researcher should take special care in ensuring that ethical standards are met. Ethical considerations refer to the protection of the participants' rights (right to self-determination, right to privacy, right to autonomy and confidentiality, right to fair treatment and right to protection from discomfort and harm), obtaining informed consent and the institutional review process (ethical approval). The researcher needs to provide adequate information on each of these aspects.

Informed consent needs to be obtained from the participants (details discussed in further chapters), as well as the research site and the relevant authorities.

When the researcher prepares a research budget, he/she should predict and cost all aspects of the research and then add an additional allowance for unpredictable disasters, delays and rising costs. All items in the budget should be justified.

Appendices are documents that support the proposal and application. The appendices will be specific for each proposal but documents that are usually required include informed consent form, supporting documents, questionnaires, measurement tools and patient information of the study in layman's language.

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your proposal. Although the words ‘references and bibliography’ are different, they are used interchangeably. It refers to all references cited in the research proposal.

Successful, qualitative research proposals should communicate the researcher's knowledge of the field and method and convey the emergent nature of the qualitative design. The proposal should follow a discernible logic from the introduction to presentation of the appendices.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

NIH Writing Groups

Writing a strong application for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Project Grant (R01) requires dedicated, careful thought and time for writing. PIs often struggle to carve out dedicated grant writing time in a schedule already full of teaching, research, service and other scholarly activities. Being part of a peer writing group, which meets at a regularly scheduled time for the dedicated purpose of writing, can offer the extra push and accountability PIs need to help their applications materialize.  

To support principal investigators as they pioneer revolutionary, comprehensive research, OVPR Research Development has partnered with the Population Research Center (PRC) to offer R01 Writing Groups. 

Because early-career and new-to-NIH PIs may find writing an R01 to be particularly daunting, the R01 Writing Groups Program offers additional support designed around the needs of “pre-R01” PIs. Throughout the academic year, the groups will offer R01 skill-building events and component-specific resources. Critically, they will facilitate specific feedback from NIH-experienced UT PIs at key points in the writing process to ensure participants receive institute-specific expert guidance.  

The R01 Writing Groups Program is centered around 4-6 person writing groups, matched according to shared research interests and availability. Writing Groups will meet regularly throughout the academic year to make progress on their R01 applications (minimum of 1.5 hours, every other week). Groups will be self-directed, taking advantage of sample agendas and OVPR-provided meeting spaces to develop a group that meets all members’ needs.

Additionally, participants will have access to:

• R01 skill-building events (e.g., workshops, Q&As)
• A curated library of R01 resources and guides
• Opportunities for feedback on drafts from NIH-experienced UT PIs (once per semester)

Eligibility  

• Must be a UT Principal Investigator
• Must be working on an NIH R01 application (for any deadline through November 2024)
• Must commit to meeting with your writing group for a minimum of 1.5 hours every other week throughout the academic year
• Participation is capped at 40 participants. If interest exceeds this limit, preference will be given to PIs who have not yet secured R01 funding, regardless of career stage or history of R01 submissions

Registration

R01 Writing Groups are currently closed. Writing Group eligibility begins over the summer, between semesters. 

Questions?  

Contact  [email protected]