Australian Research Council (ARC)

Each year the Australian Research Council (ARC) issues grants to academics based on submitted proposals. For this research project you will be required to imagine you are an academic and write a mock research proposal/grant application to the ARC. The proposal will be based around a question/topic that you develop (for example, your question/topic may be something like are young people interested in politics? Is social capital declining in Australia? Has gang violence increased in Melbourne in the last two decades?). Most significantly, you need to explain how you would explore this question/topic through the use of three of the methods covered in weeks 3-8 of this subject.

Your research project must be structured as follows:

1. Introduction: Short introduction explaining what your research question/topic is (expressed succinctly, ideally as a question) and a brief overview of the methods you propose using to examine this question. (You might also briefly say something here about how the proposal fits in with the existing literature (as you will outline in more detail in part 2) and the value your proposed research has to society (as you will outline in more detail in section 4)(approx. 200 words) (10% of grade)

2. The existing literature: Describe the existing literature on this question/topic or related literature (based on our own research) and how your proposed study fits in/builds on this. You should also mention (if possible) what methods are used in the research you cite and then explain, in this section or section 3, how the methods you propose to use are answering this question in a more satisfactory or innovative way than before (approx. 400 words) (20% of grade)

3. Method: Explain the methods that you propose to use to answer your question/topic (you must only propose to use methods covered in weeks 3-8 of this subject). So, for example, you may say you are going to use focus groups, interviewing and ethnography to explore question X. In this section you may discuss but should not limit yourself to:
• Explain how using these methods will help you answer the question.
• The virtues (or otherwise) of the methods you propose using (i.e. try and ‘sell’ the methods you propose to use but also try and counter any possible criticisms in the fictional ARC assessor’s mind).
• How will you conduct the research? For example, how will you conduct your focus group (how will you recruit participants? When and where will the focus groups be done? How will you prevent biases?)
• Are there ethical dimensions to your research proposal and how will you deal with these?
• What alternative methods could have been used that would be consistent with the research question/topic and explain why you are not using these? I would suggest sticking to methods covered in this subject only.
(approx. 1000 words) (50% of grade)

4. The question’s importance: Explain the importance of your proposal in terms of practical and/or normative implications. For example, will it contribute to a pressing policy problem? Will it help address some sort of puzzle in the literature? Will it make some contribution to social science or your discipline (in Australia and/or internationally)? Will it form the basis for further or a much bigger study? (approx. 200 words) (10% of grade)

5. Conclusion: Briefly summarise your proposed project (the question, method and importance) including a succinct summary of why you should be awarded a grant by the ARC (approx. 200 words) (10% of grade)
Please note:

In the first instance please address your queries to your tutor as they will be marking your work. Most of the tutors have other jobs but they will generally answer emails within 48 hours (excluding weekends). Often it’s easier to address your questions to your tutor in class or in their office hours. I will also give you time to ask questions in the lecture so it may be helpful for you to attend these in the weeks leading up to when the research project is due.
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