Delft University of Technology

Saturday, 03 May 2008

The Valorisation Centre and Delft TopTech organized a series of short courses on 'How to formulate Research Proposals'. The course was intended for senior scientists from all the faculties. With the recently reduced budget for the University other funding sources need to be tapped. And a survey disclosed that the University had not been very successful in getting their proposals approved.

Our course introduced the Logical Framework Analysis tool as a methodology to assess the quality of research proposals. This approach was chosen as it will enable the participants to directly apply the concept to their own world. Moreover peer-group evaluation is strikingly effective.

As from the start of the training it was quite interesting that, in spite of working in a science environment, only few of the 20 participants were familiar with the tool, which originates from mathematics (Operations Research).

Applying the logic and causality to research proposals offered very strong arguments to improve the proposals in very specific areas: relevance, feasibility and sustainability. Apparently it was not always clear WHO are supposed to benefit (end-users), WHY they would need the 'solution' (solving real existing problems), WHAT objectives the research will achieve and under which ASSUMPTIONS and HOW the research will be organized internally and in collaboration with others.

Particularly the 'partnership' approach involving different faculties and organizations to address a specific issue in society in a wider context was not so common as yet. The evaluation showed that the course was highly appreciated.

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