專題研究計畫撰寫-心得分享
許桂森 教授
成功大學醫學院藥理學科暨研究所
基因調控及訊息傳遞研究中心
11/14/2007
Research Grant
What do you intend to do?
Why is the work important?
What has already been done?
How are you going to do the work?
- Think Like a Reviewer -
A strong proposal
1.
2.
3.
4.
Research significance: Important problems
Research approach: Address the aims
Innovation: Novel concepts, approach methods
Investigator: appropriately trained, record of
publication
5. Environment: Scientific environment contribute
to the probability of success
Clear, Logical and Brief
Ideals
Rationale
Research
Questions
Why ?
Preliminary
Studies
HYPOTHESES
Literature
Review
Specific Aims
Objectives
What ?
Experimental
Design
How ?
PROPOSAL PROBLEMS (I)
(10 most common reasons for proposal failure)
1. Lack of original ideas
2. Diffuse, unfocused, or superficial research
plan
3. Lack of knowledge of published relevant
work
4. Lack of experience in essential methodology
5. Uncertainty concerning future directions
From NIH
PROPOSAL PROBLEMS (II)
6. Questionable reasoning in experimental
approach
7. Absence of acceptable scientific
rationale
8. Unrealistically large amount of work
9. Lack of sufficient experimental detail
10. Uncritical approach
Writing the Proposal
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Title
Abstract (English and Chinese)
Background and Significance
Objectives and Specific Aims
Preliminary Studies
Experimental Designs and Methods:
Timetable
7. Expected Results
8. The Budget
9. Biographical Sketch, Research Support
and Resources
Title
 Concise, Attractive and Succinct
Correctively reflect the contents of the proposal
Chinese and English titles should be consistent
“Conditional knock out mice to explore the role
of MAGUK scaffolding proteins in glutamate
receptor trafficking”
Abstract and Specific Aims (I)
 The most important pages in the proposal
 First impression to the reviewers
 One page is recommended
 Not too many aims
 Chinese and English abstracts should be
consistent
1. General goal/significance
2. A theoretical framework or model
3. Hypotheses
4. Tests of the hypotheses (Specific Aims)
Abstract and Specific Aims (II)
Females and males are different in brain and behavior.
Females are more susceptible than males to stress-induced
affective disorders and twice as likely to experience
depression. These differences are probably underlined by
sexual dimorphisms observed in the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity/response to stress and
its interaction with the central neurotransmitter systems.
The overall HYPOTHESIS to be evaluated is that sex alters
behavioral and physiological responses to stress and
estrogen exerts both organizational and activational
influence on the sex differences in response to stress
through the regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic
factor (BDNF) and its signaling pathways.
Abstract and Specific Aims (III)
Specific Aims: (1) Investigate whether the stress-induced
alterations of the inducibility of hippocampal long-term synaptic
plasticity (e.g., long-term potentiation and long-term depression),
anxiety and behavioral depression are affected by sex and gonadal
hormone fluctuations occurring during the estrous cycle. (2)
Determine whether variations in the BDNF levels or its signaling
cascades during the estrous cycle in females is a contributing factor
to cause the sex differences in the stress-induced affective disorders.
(3) Evaluate whether females are more vulnerable in the application
of chronic mild stress model of depression using additional/novel
short-term stressful procedure tests, such as the forced swim test
and learned helplessness paradigms, and to determine whether the
sex differences in chronic mild stress are permanently by the action
of gonadal steroids during prenatal and/or postnatal periods of
development.
Abstract and Specific Aims (IV)
Significance. Understanding why individuals exhibit
differential responses to stress-induced affective disorders is
important to further the basic science of stress vulnerability
as well as to effectively treat and perhaps prevent stressrelated affective disorders in at-risk individuals.
Don’t write long background or discussion
in this section.
Background and Significance (I)
 Not a literature review
 TWO TO THREE PAGES ARE RECOMMENDED.
 Update background description
1. The project is important.
“What impact will the results of this research have
on other research in the field or on our
understanding and treatment of disease?”
2. The Science is interesting.
New ideals, new experimental approaches, new
hypotheses, new interpretations of old data
3. There is a high probability of success.
Background and Significance (II)
 The significance of the work has better to
very obvious to the reviewers.
Use diagram to present a basic theory and indicate
the relationship of the specific aims and the individual
experiments to the theory.
 Literature citations should consist of no
more than 30-50 entries.
All of the papers cited must be carefully read and
understood.
They should be of excellent quality and not
controversial.
Reviewer
?????
1. Are the aims logical?
2. Is there a valid hypothesis possible?
3. Are feasible tests of the hypothesis
possible? Would such tests produce
new data?
4. What is the significance and
originality of the proposed research
relative to its scientific field?
Preliminary Studies (I)
A great impact on the eventual success of the proposal
1. You have experience with most of the
experimental techniques proposed in
the application.
2. You can design logical, wellcontrolled experiments
3. You will present your results in a
clear and thoughtful manner.
With clear and complete figure/table legends,
calibrations, statistical analysis, etc.
Preliminary Studies (II)
Don’t just show raw
data.
Show only results that are relevant to the
proposed experiments, and explicitly point
out their relevance
Don’t overstate your claims or ignore
different possible interpretations.
Hypothesis
A HYPOTHESIS consists either of a suggested
explanation for a phenomenon or of a reasoned proposal
suggesting a possible correlation between multiple
phenomena.
 Based on experimental data
 Use relevant literatures and preliminary data
 Don’t confuse hypothesis with method
 It is worth repeating .
Research Design and Methods (I)
Research design is very different from Method.
Design is what will be done but Method is how it
will be done.

 It reveals much about the depth of the thinking
of the PI.
 Research Design subsection should answer
the question, “what will be done in order to
accomplish the Specific Aims?
 Be logical and step-by-step leading to your
specific aims
Research Design and Methods (II)
Specific Aim 1 (verbatim as in the Specific Aims)
Hypothesis (verbatim as in the Specific Aims)
Experiment 1: Title
Hypothesis corollary to be tested
Rationale, if appropriate
Design: list procedures (Flow chart or Table)
Data expected, analysis and interpretation
Problems and solutions, if appropriate
Experiment 2: Title
Hypothesis corollary to be tested
Rationale, if appropriate
Design: list procedures
Data expected, analysis and interpretation
Problems and solutions, if appropriate
Research Design and Methods (III)
 Updated technologies
 Alternative approaches
 Control experiments
 Method list
 The project timetable: grant chart is
convenient and concise
Expected Results
 Why good results will be expected
 Alternative interpretations of the
results
 How the results will support your
hypotheses
 Perspectives
References
Correspond to the text
Updated
Consistent format
No more than 30-50 entries
Not review article only
The Budget
 Reasonable (10%)
 Justifications for purchasing the
equipment needed and large request
 Personnel and Travel
Keys to good proposal writing
Precise (精確)
Logic (條理)
Succinct (簡明)
Meticulous (嚴密)
Relevancy (關聯)
References
1. 如何撰寫研究計畫 陽明大學 徐明達 教授
11/16/2006
2. 如何撰寫研究計畫 中山大學 陳慶鏗 教授
11/24/2006
3. Research Proposals- A guide to success
Ogden and Goldberg (2002)
Third Edition.
4. Scientific Methods: survival skills for
young investigators in biomedical
research Prof. Tung-Tien Sun
Thank you for your attention