Research Proposal – to study a topic of your choice (related to microbial genetics).
In the world of research, funding is limited, and for every research project that is funded, there are numerous projects which are not. In fact, the success rate for research funding in Canada is between 10 % – 50 %. Because of this, before you can do research, you have to convince fellow scientists in your field that your research plans are worth the limited resources that are available to the scientific community.
For this project, you will write a concise research proposal (1500 word limit) detailing a
novel topic that you want to study, which is related to microbial genetics (bacterial, viral, or fungal genetics) (this could be studying a single gene, a gene network, a whole genome,
etc).
Official Due Date: November 21st, 2023 @ 11:59 PM (+5 mark bonus (5.0 %))
Secondary Due Date: November 23rd, 2023 @ 11:59 PM (No bonus marks; No late penalty) Last Day for Submission: November 28th @ 11:59 PM (-5 marks for every day late, starting November 24th)
Your Proposal Should Include the Following:
● Title: Descriptive but concise
● Abstract: (≤ 250 words)
● Introduction: (~1 Page). Your introduction should be general, such that any layperson
can understand your proposal. Describe the information that is relevant to your topic (tell a story). You should also include your research question here – why you chose to study this particular topic, and how will it help us (why is it relevant and novel)?
● Materials and Methods: (~3/4 Page). This section should include detailed methods of how you are going to go about answering your research question. It should include all relevant information (if you are studying a gene, is there an NCBI submission? If PCR is involved, what primers? What are their sequences? If you are studying a whole genome, how many bps is it? What is the GC content? Etc).
○ Should include a visual representation of your research plan (a flow chart, an image, a table, etc). Do not copy and paste any figures from other research sources (this is plagiarism). If you are remaking a figure from another paper, cite it.
● Anticipated Results and Impact of Research: (~1 Page). Predict what you may find in your experiment. Focus on how likely you believe that the methods you described above will be successful. Discuss why your research should be funded, and use ideas from your introduction to support your argument.
● Future Research Goals: What would come next, assuming your research yielded anticipated results?
● References: Please use the following formatting for citations: Authors. (Year). Title. Journal. Volume (Issue): Page #s. DOI:
Ex: Russell, J. N. (2022). How to write a scientific paper. Super Cool Publications. 4 (5): 12-24. DOI: 123.123.123.
-Note that all authors should be listed in your reference section (do not shorten author lists with et al. in the reference section).
Extra citation considerations (in text):
-One author:
(Russell. 2022)
-Two authors:
(Russell & Cameron. 2022)
-More than two authors: (Russell et al. 2022)
-When there are 2 citations with the same author and year: (Russell et al. 2022a)
-Citing two different sources for the same idea: (Cameron et al. 2022; Russell et al. 2022)
● Appendix: Includes the following (if applicable):
○ Sequences in FASTA format (for sequences not available on NCBI; NCBI
sequences can be cited with accession numbers in the materials and methods)
○ Primer pairs (if using multiple primer sets)
○ Primer TmS (if using multiple primer sets)
○ Information that is relevant to the paper but should not be included in the text,
itself.
Required Formatting:
1. 12 point font
2. Times New Roman font
3. 1.5 spacing (except for table and figure descriptions, which should be single
spaced).
4. Regular margins
5. Correct scientific units and formatting must be used (ex: μL NOT uL, proper
super/subscript for chemical compounds, etc.)
6. Non-breaking spaces when typing units or scientific names.
7. A header on every page, which includes your full name and student ID.
8. The title and author should be at the top of the first page, but you do not need a
title page.
9. Must follow scientific convention for gene and organism name formatting (ex:
scientific names and gene names must be italicized), and unit spacing (units always have a space in-between the number and the unit (ex: This: 10 mL. Not this: 10mL).
10. Must follow scientific convention for number use (numbers 1-9 must be written out (ex: ‘one’, ‘two’, etc), numbers greater than 9 can be listed numerically (ex:
10, 11, 12), and numbers that start a sentence must be written out)).
11. No cover page
12. 1500 word limit, not including figure and table descriptions, or the reference list.
Other Instructions:
1. This report should be written in a style similar to a research paper that you would find in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
2. All thoughts that are not your own must be properly cited.
3. All cited information must be written in your own words! No quotations! (Do not
plagiarize).
4. Your proposed research must be novel.
5. Your topic must be related to microbial genetics in some way.
6. Must be submitted electronically.
7. While you have a 1500 word limit, you do not need to use all 1500 words (avoid
including unnecessary information).
8. Refer to the grading rubric for more guidance.
Tips for Picking a Topic:
1) Consider what you are interested in, personally.
2) Peruse the most recent publications on this topic on Google Scholar.
3) Check the Abstracts and Conclusions of these publications to see if the authors have
directly stated gaps in the research or ‘next steps’ that you could build from.
An Example:
When I was in undergrad, I did a similar project in a microbiology course. I was interested in bioremediation, and so that’s where I started my search. I eventually came across an organism that was found to be able to degrade hydrocarbons. This is useful research for oil spill clean-up. However, the gene had not yet been identified. My project proposal was written from the perspective that we would determine which gene was involved in phenanthrene degradation via knockout experiments. My future research speculated that when the gene was identified, we could potentially transform that gene into other organisms that we could use for oil spill clean-up