Chem students are required to submit a written proposal as part of their qualifier. Students should prepare a written document that explains their oral presentation. This is a brief document, modeled after a standard funding agency (example: National Science Foundation, NSF) proposal. It should be no more than 15 pages (longer documents can be permissible with the Academic Advisor approval) in length including figures and references. This document should be ready to submit to the Committee at least two (2) weeks prior to the qualifier date. Below is an example of how to organize the document.

Summary 

A brief overview of the proposed work with emphasis on the intellectual merit and the broader impacts (1 page). 

Background and Significance 

This section should answer the question: Why is the proposed work important? Briefly sketch the background to the present proposal, critically evaluate existing knowledge, and identify gaps in our present understanding. This section may need to occupy as many as 3-4 pages. 

Specific Aims 

This section is intended to answer, in very specific terms, the question: What do you propose to do? No background or other narrative material belongs in this section; it is not meant to stand alone, nor to provide details about the experimental system, but rather to provide a succinct and specific summary of the planned research. It is probably most helpful to write this section after writing the rest of the proposal. It should occupy no more than one page. 

Experimental Design and Feasibility 

This section should parallel the Specific Aims section and should answer the question: How will you do the proposed work? Describe each experiment you propose to conduct and how you will analyze the data and interpret the results. Provide appropriate calculations or cite literature data to support the feasibility of the experiments you propose. Supporting evidence that comes from unpublished work must be clearly identified as such and specifically attributed. Discuss potential drawbacks of any proposed experiments that lack clear precedent and propose alternative approaches to achieve the aims. This section may need to occupy as many as 3-4 pages. 

References 

The list of references must include complete citations, including all authors and the titles of research articles or book chapters.