Please take the following guidelines into account in preparing your research proposals.

1. The body of the proposal must be no longer that 5 single-spaced pages (not including the title page, the list of references, and the budget), in 11 point font and one inch margins on all sides.

2. The title page must include the title of the research proposal, the author's name and contact information, and a revised, final version of the abstract describing the research problem and summarizing the proposed activity). This information must be limited to one single-spaced page.

3. The body of the proposal (up to 5 pages) must contain the introduction or background information; related works and literature review; detailed description of the research proposed and the research objectives; a description of the research design and research methodologies to achieve the objectives; and a detailed plan of work. The suggested organization of the proposal is as follows (including suggested page limits in various sections):

Section 1: Introduction and Overview (1 to 1.5 pages)

• Background information and more detailed discussion of the research problem and the proposed solution;
• Hypotheses and research objectives
• Assumptions and delimitations of the research proposed
• Importance and benefits of the proposed research

Section 2: Related Work (1 page)

• Literature Review
• Relationship to prior research

Section 3: Research Design and Methodology (2 pages)

• Detailed description of the proposed research activity and research methodologies used to achieve the objectives
• Technical description of a proposed solution if one is specified in the hypothesis
• Description of the evaluation approach to verify the hypothesis, including types of data used, data collection, metrics used for evaluation, methods used for data analysis, etc.

Section 4: Plan of Work and Outcomes (0.5 to 1 page)

• Description of how the activities will meet the goals and objectives outlined;
• Description of the outcomes deliverables from the completed project.

Section 5. Conclusions and Future Work (1-2 paragraphs)

Section 6: References (not included in the 5 pages).

Appendix: Budget and Budget Narrative (Max. 1 page)

• An itemized budget supporting the research activities proposed
• A justification of the line items in the budget
• Budgets must be limited to $5,000.