Research Roadmap

A research plan starts with mapping the key aspects to turn your idea into a solid and successful research project. It’s important to formulate a specific research question and hypothesis and identifying the appropriate study design that will provide the most unbiased answers. But also: Are there sufficient financial resources and staff to enable you to conduct the intended research? Is a sponsor identified? Do you have access to the necessary facilities? Do you need to start collaborations? Is the number of human subjects to be recruited feasible?  

You’ve asked yourself: Is this idea innovative? Does it fit within the department or division’s research focus? Is it relevant to potential sponsors? Do I have an exploratory/descriptive or a confirmatory research question? Does the scientific importance outweigh the risks to human subjects? Is it publishable? And so on.