CPSC 590: Research Methods -- Research Proposal Assignment

CPSC 590 Assignment ---- Research Proposal

In this assignment you will be completing an application for an NSERC Discovery Grant. As per the NSERC website,

"Discovery Grants support ongoing programs of research. These grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all advances in research, whether made individually or in groups. Researchers are free to work in the mode most appropriate for the research area."

Make the following assumptions when completing the grant:

you are a new assistant professor named "Terry Smith" and you have just been hired at UBC
you are proposing a 3 year research program

The Discovery Grant application process consists of submitting three main parts: (1) Form 101; (2) Form 100; and (3) samples of research contributions. For this assignment you need only submit Form 101 and copies of two of the most relevant papers. Form 101 consists of a multi-page form (Part 1 -- see the PDF form below), and a free-format description of the research proposal (Part 2).

For Part 1, you should submit pages 1, 3, 5, and a budget-justification page. For Part 2, you should submit a research project description of 3 to 5 pages in length. See the instructions link below for the type of information that Part 2 should include. You should include a discussion of previous work with a short bibliography in Part 2. Your discussion of previous work should present at least two papers that are relevant to your proposed research project. Include copies of two of the most relevant papers with your research proposal.

Your research proposal should not be so specific that it suggests making an improvement to one very specific algorithm published in only one paper. It should not be so broad that it covers an entire area of research, i.e., "computer vision". Instead, aim for a proposal that targets one or two specific sub-areas of research, that describes the issues and open questions of this sub-area, and that also discusses some specific papers and specific approaches to solutions that you wish to propose.

You are recommended to work in pairs on this research proposal. Submit three printed copies of the research proposal, which includes the two relevant papers. Hand-in one copy of a cover page that lists your names, the title of your proposal, and any additional comments regarding your proposal. This cover page will go only to the course instructors and will thus not be seen by your peer evaluators.

Evaluation

The research proposals will first be evaluated by two of your colleagues, and then by the course instructors.

Friday November 21, 1:30pm: Research proposals due in class
Friday November 21, 4pm, FSC 2616: pickup research proposals for review
Friday November 28, 1:30pm: Reviews of research proposals due in class
Links:
NSERC Discovery Grant instructions
NSERC Discovery Grant Part 1 PDF form
(Nov 12 2003: Because you cannot fill out the PDF form unless you have the full version of Acrobat installed, it is acceptable to submit a close fascimile of the F101 pages that you need to fill out. The form is also available as a fillable web-page to researchers, but we would like to avoid the need for everyone to create their own NSERC account login. )