Title: Provide a succinct title $($not more than $20$ words in length$).$ Try to give the reader a clear picture of the project topic, what the research will do $($e$.$g$.,$ evaluate or test something$)$ and where $($i$.$e$.,$ give it a geographic context if appropriate$).$

Context & Rational for the Project: Provide the background context and rational for your research topic. Outline the main published research that has been undertaken to date in your area of interest and highlight the perceived research $$gap$$ or problem$/$issue that your research intends to address. Make sure you provide a good range of current academic and$/$or technical references to support your research context. This section should demonstrate your initial academic reading from a range of academic sources and identify that there is a literature base to draw upon with an attempt to demonstrate criticality.

Research Question or Hypothesis: Based on the context and literature reviewed in the section above, provide a key research question $($or hypothesis$)$ that you will attempt to address in your work. The question should not be the Project title. It should be researchable and along with the objectives provide a boundary to provide realistic scope and scale for the project. Make sure you set and then maintain a tight focus for your research.

Aim and Objectives: Provide an overall aim for your research and a set of three or four clear objectives for how you intend to achieve your overall aim and address your research questions. Your objectives should provide a platform for the subsequent methods section by enabling you to break your research down into discrete parcels. Your objectives should be measurable and achievable within the time frame of the project. The objectives should be numbered and should use appropriate action verbs $($see Bloom$$s taxonomy$)$ in your objectives.

Methodology: You should describe and justify the rationale for your project design. Set out your methods as clearly as you can and try to map them towards achieving your objectives $($for some projects it may also be useful to provide a flow chart$).$ Your methods need to state how you intend to collect the data and$/$or information $($including secondary data$)$ and how you intend to analyse it$.$ You must justify your choice of data collection and data analysis by reference to the literature. You do not need to include a section on research philosophy in your proposal; you should concentrate on providing details on what you intend to do and why. This will help us determine the feasibility of your project. This section should also include a summary of the key ethical issues $($see ethics briefing$).$ In addition you will be required to submit an ethics application via the ethics portal, this is assessed separately $$ deadline is to be confirmed.

If you intend to undertake a questionnaire$/$interviews you should aim to include these in an appendix $($outside of the word count$).$

Project Timetable

You should include a one$-$page readable project plan in an Appendix $($outside of the word count$).$ You will need to carefully plan your timetable to ensure that you are ready to submit your chapters for formative feedback and be able to write the final dissertation by the hand$-$in date. Using a Gantt chart or another project management approach will help you with time management; remember you are carrying out this project independently whilst working with all the pressures of other work and life.