Research Proposal Guidelines

BSM Program, Life Science Zurich Graduate School

Research proposal guidelines
The format of the research proposal for the BSM PhD Program generally follows the
proposal format required by the Department of Biology, ETH Zurich.

Research proposals in the BSM PhD program should meet certain criteria regarding form and content. Excluding title page they should have a maximum length of five pages (about 2000 words) and be built up as follows:

Title page
• working title of the proposed dissertation
• name and contact information of the doctoral student
• Institute, at which the dissertation should be carried out
• names of the members of the doctoral thesis committee
• proposed dates for the beginning and planned end of the dissertation

Content (approx. 2000 words, max. 5 pages)

• Introduction (suitable for ‘general biologists’) – approximately 2 pages
• descriptions of the Questions/Hypotheses/Goals that the dissertation should
address: ½ page
• Experimental approach/strategy: ½ page
• Results obtained in the period until submission of the proposal: max. 2 pages
• a schematic Timeline (schedule of what should be achieved when and by which
means)
• a list of relevant References (cited in the text)

At the end of the proposal (outside the 5-page limit), please also outline briefly:
• teaching responsibilities
• courses taken or intended to be taken for credit