Writing the Research Plan Section: Research Design and Methods

Research Design and Methods

Length: +10 pages (or approximately one-half the length of the research plan).
Organization and common subsections
Overview of study design
- Describe the experimental design and procedures in detail and give a rationale for their use, if needed.
In many instances, you may have struggled with a crucial design question and arrived at a satisfactory solution.
- Don’t just present your solution.
- The reviewers may wonder why you chose a particular route.
- Therefore, you should provide a rationale for your decision and discuss the rejected alternatives.

Study population
- Eligibility criteria
  - Provide rationales for inclusion and exclusion criteria
  - Provide rationales for control groups.
Subject recruitment, enrollment, and retention.
- Describe sources of eligible subjects.
- Describe methods for identifying; contacting; and enrolling subjects, including obtaining informed consent.
Study procedures: provide an overview of the following:
- Number of study visits
- Where study visits will take place
- Types of data that will be collected
- Who will collect data or perform procedures
- Where specimens will be stored/analyzed

Study measurements
- Organize and categorize them by
  - Specific Aim, or
  - How they will be used analytically:
    - predictor variables
    - outcome variables
    - confounding variables
- Provide rationales for your choice if several options are available.
- Limit the amount of technical detail.
Data quality and management
- Issues that could be included:
  - Staff training
  - Quality audits
  - Missing data
Data analysis
- Hypothesis testing
- Sample size calculations
- Expected findings
- Data interpretation

Potential problems and alternative approaches
- Openly recognizing any inherent holes or pitfalls in your research plan can “show maturity.”
- It is entirely appropriate to acknowledge weaknesses and to present alternative plans.
- It is a common and costly mistake to leave this kind of information out of your research plan.
Timeline: Indicate when each specific aim will be implemented and completed.
- Emphasize feasibility of accomplishing all specific aims within timeframe and resources requested.

Provide an abstract of the whole application (candidate, environment, and research).
- Include the candidate’s immediate and long-term career goals, research career development plan, and a description of the research project.
Using no more than 2 or 3 sentences, describe the relevance of this research to public health.
- Be succinct and use plain language that can be understood by a general, lay audience.

A part of the peer review process will include careful consideration of protections from research risks for study participants, as well as the appropriate inclusion of women, minorities, and children.
The study section will assess the adequacy of the safeguards of the rights and welfare of research participants and the appropriate inclusion of women, minorities, and children.
- Evaluation of the inclusion plans will be factored into the overall score for scientific and technical merit.

Mentored K awards provide salary support for the candidate (usually $75,000/year) plus $25,000 to $50,000/year to cover the costs of the proposed training and research.
- The amount of salary support and funds for research/training may differ by institute.
You may not receive salary support from federally funded sources in Years 1 – 3 of the K award, although you may be a principal investigator on your own R01, R03, or R21 in Years 4 and 5.
A detailed, itemized budget is not required by NIH, although you do have to provide a justification if you are requesting more than $25,000/year for research/training expenses.
However, an itemized, detailed budget is required for internal review by UCSF, although it is not included in the grant application submitted to NIH .

This section must include the biographical sketches of all Key Personnel and Other Significant Contributors.
For the candidate only, the section on Publications must be divided into the following categories:
- Original research
- Non-experimental articles (e.g., literature reviews, book chapters)
- Books, pamphlets, etc.

Describe the facilities used to conduct the research (see Examples 11 and 12).
Indicate performance sites and describe capacities, pertinent capabilities, relative proximity, and extent of availability to the project.
If research involving “Special Agents” will occur, the biocontainment resources available at each site should be described.

Develop a list of all components of your grant application package, including those required by the UCSF Office of Sponsored Research (OSR).
Indicate who is responsible for completing each component.
Develop this list in collaboration with your RSA (research support analyst), who will help you compile the grant application for submission to the OSR and NIH.

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