PSSC Research Award Program (PSSC-RAP)

THE THESIS/DISSERTATION GRANT PROPOSAL

The thesis/dissertation grant proposal to be submitted must be no more than ten (10) pages long (A4 size paper, double-spaced, font size 12) based on the approved thesis/dissertation. The grant proposal must include a description of the following:

Statement of the Problem

This should be concise and to the point. It must indicate that the applicant has gone beyond having a general area of interest (e.g., gender, kinship, environment, governance, sustainable development etc.), and has now formulated a focused question/problem and objectives worth researching. The statement of the problem must inform readers what new knowledge they are going to gain from the thesis/dissertation research that they do not already know.

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework/s

The statement of the problem must be embedded within a given field of inquiry. Hence, the applicant must provide a summary of the relevant literature and theoretical framework/s informing the thesis/dissertation problem. A good grant proposal demonstrates an awareness of relevant literature and previous scholarly arguments and locates the thesis/dissertation problem within the intersections of ongoing debates and theoretical currents. 

Methodology

The grant proposal must specify the research operations and activities the applicant will undertake and how the results from these operations will be analyzed and interpreted in terms of the thesis/dissertation problem. Research operations and activities (i.e., archival work, surveys, interviews, observation and testing statistical patterns, etc.) vary by discipline, but the applicant must be able to argue why the choice of methodology is the best approach to answering the thesis/dissertation’s central problem.

Timetable & Activities for the Grant Period

The applicant must indicate the remaining activities needed to complete the thesis/dissertation research, bearing in mind that the RAP grant period is for one year only.