D-BSSE Research Plan

D-BSSE Guidelines for the Research Plan
Writing a research plan should help you structure and plan your work and will also help you gain valuable experience in writing grant proposals.
Detailed guidelines for the research plan can be found here:

The Research Plan has to be submitted electronically to the coordinator 8 months after your matriculation at ETH.
Please follow the general structure of the research plan, use Arial 12pt font and single line spacing.
DO NOT change the template formatting.
DO NOTexceed a maximum length of 11 pages (including title page) – your plan will not be accepted if longer.

D-BSSE Research Plan

Basic Information

Signature

PhD Student / First name, surname
Supervisor / First name, surname
PhD Thesis Title / XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Date of submission
  1. Summary (max ½ page)
The short summary identifies the area of your research, the main goals and the expected contributions to your field of research. Provide a coherent summary also if you work on several projects.

xxx

  1. Introduction (min ½ page, max 1 page)
Provide a brief introduction to the field and the issues to be addressed including the general methods and expected outcomes of your research.

xxx

  1. State-of-the-Art (max 1 page)
Describe your research in terms of previous and related work. Explain the significance of your research and identify potential challenges.

xxx

  1. Goals of the Thesis (min1 page, max 2 pages)
This section contains a paragraph describing the main goals of the thesis and then provides the following details: research questions to be addressed, methods to be used, expected contributions, links to other projects and/or disciplines.

xxx

  1. Detailed Work Plan (min ½ page)
Present your work plan in the form of work packages, each defining the task and expected outcome (in general, a work package should describe a minimum of 3 and maximum of 12 months of work). Provide a risk assessment for each subpoint: if it doesn’t work (in time), which other parts of your plan are affected, what is the backup?

WP 1:

xxx

WP 2:

xxx

Risk assessment: (for all points include planned time requirements and risk assessment)

  1. Progress to Date (min1 page, max 2 pages)
With reference to the work plan, describe the progress made to date with details of any results, including publications accepted or submitted. This section includes a time schedule.

xxx

Time schedule:(change fill color of table cells to show planned timing)

Workpackage / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 / Year 4
(start: MM.YY) / (start: MM.YY) / (start: MM.YY) / (start: MM.YY)
Publication 1 (writing and submission)
Writing Thesis
  1. References (max 1 page)
Present a list of papers referenced in the description of the state-of-the-art and use the indicated style.

1.Young, R.A., Control of the embryonic stem cell state. Cell, 2011.

2.Takahashi, K. et al, Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell, 2006.

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