CGS-M question

[Clinpsyc01]

Hey guys! 

I decided at the last minute to apply for a CGS-M so right now I'm scrambling to put together a decent proposal. I'm applying to CIHR, and my proposed research will involve recruiting participants. Do I need to state where I plan on conducting this research? I was looking at an acquaintance's proposal from a few years ago and she stated the specific university and health centre where she planned on doing it, where she was going to recruit people, etc; however, I believe she only applied to one school. I'm applying to a bunch of schools, and I'm not familiar with any of the hospitals, etc. in those areas so I can't say where I'll be recruiting my participants or anything. Is that okay? 

[eternallyephemeral]

If you are applying to multiple schools, there's no way you could specify this information for each school. Also, that is not the most important part of the proposal, even if it did impact your friend's proposal. I have done the CGSM app twice now, and neither time did I put this information down, and no one recommended it either time as well.

Just make sure your proposal is clear, well-written, and convincing. Those types of methods-section details are not what you should focus on.

[TakeruK]

Although I am not in your field and I was not applying to the same agency (I won the CGS-M from NSERC in 2009, and CGS-D from NSERC in 2011), I agree with what @eternallyephemeral says. I would recommend that you read the selection criteria for the CGS-M very carefully.

In particular, the research proposal is one factor in the "Research Potential" criteria, which has a weight of 30%. If you look at the list of "indicators of research potential", you see 7 items, and only 2 are related to the research proposal: "Relevance of work experience and academic training to field of proposed research" and "Significance, feasibility and merit of proposed research". 

The first indicator is not really something you can do much about, because you can't change your work experience and academic training. However, this does mean that if your experience thus far as been in subfield X, you should write a proposal for subfield X, instead of subfield Y. **Note: Back in 2009 and 2011, you are not obligated to work on the actual proposed research at all, but that may have changed. I wrote my proposal for something completely different from what I actually did work on.

The second indicator is the important one. In a 1-page proposal, you basically have room for just 3-4 paragraphs and you want to spend one paragraph on each of those three criteria (significance, feasibility, and merit). Remember the audience for your proposal---they aren't going to be experts in the topic you're proposing for. A good format for a short research proposal is something like:

1. First paragraph, demonstrate why the area of research is interesting or noteworthy.

2. Second paragraph, introduce the specific problem you are studying and why we want to know the answer. Paragraphs 1 and 2 should include a few citations to other studies working on the same problem so that you can later demonstrate how your proposed research will fit into the field's knowledge.

3. Third paragraph, discuss your plan to answer this question and why your plan will work. You can discuss general methods here and cite other works that have used the same methods successfully. But you don't have to have specifics like the details you asked about. 

4. Fourth paragraph (this can be combined with the above), discuss your expected results. If you are proposing an experiment with multiple possible outcomes, discuss what each outcome would teach you and show that this is a worthwhile thing to do (i.e. you gain some knowledge no matter what, whether it's finding evidence for some hypothesis or a null result constraining other ideas etc.). Here is where you connect back to your introductory paragraphs and show how your new findings fit into your field.

---

The detailed instructions for this year's CGS-M research proposal are copied below (hopefully it's clear how the 4-step framework fits this prompt).

Provide a detailed description of your proposed research project for the period during which you will hold the award. Be as specific as possible. Provide background information to position your proposed research within the context of the current knowledge in the field. State the objectives and hypothesis, and outline the experimental or theoretical approach to be taken (citing literature pertinent to the proposal), and the methods and procedures to be used. State the significance of the proposed research to a field or fields in the health sciences, natural sciences and/or engineering or social sciences and/or humanities, as appropriate.

[eternallyephemeral]

12 hours ago, TakeruK said:

Although I am not in your field and I was not applying to the same agency (I won the CGS-M from NSERC in 2009, and CGS-D from NSERC in 2011), I agree with what @eternallyephemeral says. I would recommend that you read the selection criteria for the CGS-M very carefully.

In particular, the research proposal is one factor in the "Research Potential" criteria, which has a weight of 30%. If you look at the list of "indicators of research potential", you see 7 items, and only 2 are related to the research proposal: "Relevance of work experience and academic training to field of proposed research" and "Significance, feasibility and merit of proposed research". 

The first indicator is not really something you can do much about, because you can't change your work experience and academic training. However, this does mean that if your experience thus far as been in subfield X, you should write a proposal for subfield X, instead of subfield Y. **Note: Back in 2009 and 2011, you are not obligated to work on the actual proposed research at all, but that may have changed. I wrote my proposal for something completely different from what I actually did work on.

The second indicator is the important one. In a 1-page proposal, you basically have room for just 3-4 paragraphs and you want to spend one paragraph on each of those three criteria (significance, feasibility, and merit). Remember the audience for your proposal---they aren't going to be experts in the topic you're proposing for. A good format for a short research proposal is something like:

1. First paragraph, demonstrate why the area of research is interesting or noteworthy.

2. Second paragraph, introduce the specific problem you are studying and why we want to know the answer. Paragraphs 1 and 2 should include a few citations to other studies working on the same problem so that you can later demonstrate how your proposed research will fit into the field's knowledge.

3. Third paragraph, discuss your plan to answer this question and why your plan will work. You can discuss general methods here and cite other works that have used the same methods successfully. But you don't have to have specifics like the details you asked about. 

4. Fourth paragraph (this can be combined with the above), discuss your expected results. If you are proposing an experiment with multiple possible outcomes, discuss what each outcome would teach you and show that this is a worthwhile thing to do (i.e. you gain some knowledge no matter what, whether it's finding evidence for some hypothesis or a null result constraining other ideas etc.). Here is where you connect back to your introductory paragraphs and show how your new findings fit into your field.

---

The detailed instructions for this year's CGS-M research proposal are copied below (hopefully it's clear how the 4-step framework fits this prompt).

Provide a detailed description of your proposed research project for the period during which you will hold the award. Be as specific as possible. Provide background information to position your proposed research within the context of the current knowledge in the field. State the objectives and hypothesis, and outline the experimental or theoretical approach to be taken (citing literature pertinent to the proposal), and the methods and procedures to be used. State the significance of the proposed research to a field or fields in the health sciences, natural sciences and/or engineering or social sciences and/or humanities, as appropriate.

Thanks for this information! It's extremely helpful to think about the proposal with this structure.

From what I've heard, you still do not need to actually complete the project you wrote about, especially for the masters level scholarship. This is one of the reasons why I believe the specific details about the proposal are less important than the effective communication of your ideas.

[TakeruK]

26 minutes ago, eternallyephemeral said:

From what I've heard, you still do not need to actually complete the project you wrote about, especially for the masters level scholarship. This is one of the reasons why I believe the specific details about the proposal are less important than the effective communication of your ideas.

Yes, also I forgot to mention that some of the other evaluation criteria that do not explicitly mention the research proposal is "The ability or potential to communicate theoretical, technical and/or scientific concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats". The description says this is evaluated based on your past performance and letters etc. but the way you communicate your proposal will probably affect this too. 

[Clinpsyc01]

Wow, thanks guys  

 

[teds2]

The information is really helpful!  However I do have one question about the CGS M proposal - I will use multiple self-report questionnaires to collect data on different variables and I am wondering if it is necessary to list all the questionnaires that I will use in my study?

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by teds2