The research proposal

On this page
- The research proposal?
- Practical requirements
- Submitting the research proposal

 

The research proposal?

Before you actually start your research, you need to complete a research proposal. The research proposal must be submitted within 6 weeks after the first day of the research internship.

This research proposal is evaluated by both your first and second supervisor. Only if this proposal is approved by both supervisors/assessors, you may start with your internship research, which includes collecting data.  If you start collecting data prior to the approval, we have to consider the data as invalid, which could have serious consequences for your internship.  Other activities in preparation for the internship are allowed, such as already creating a survey in Qualtrics, reading up on your topic or working on the structure of your thesis.
 

Practical requirements

Programme	.
1-year Master:	Roughly between 1600 and 2800 words (4-7 pages), excluding reference list and timetable.
Research Master and Forensic Master	Roughly between 2.500 and 3.000 words, excluding the list of references.

You can use large parts of the research proposal for the introduction and method section of your master’s thesis.

A research proposal consists of the following parts:

• a brief theoretical background of the research
• the question(s) addressed by the research
• a description of the research plan
• a description of the research methods to be applied
• a description of the techniques to be used for the processing and analyzing of data
• a description of how ethical permission for the study will be (or has been) obtained. 
• a reference list
• a timetable

For MMH students: See Canvas for putative master-specific additional requirements 

 

ERCPN request for approval 

The principally responsible investigator, who is in charge of design and procedure, is responsible for obtaining the ethical permission. Typically, this is first author of any formal publications.

For an internship, this is typically your first supervisor. 

• Research at FPN:  The principally responsible investigator (FPN scientific staff or PhD-student) arranges
mandatory permission at the Ethics Review Committee Psychology and Neuroscience (ERCPN)  or the Medical Ethics Review Committee (METC).

• Research at FHML and elsewhere: The principally responsible investigator arranges ethical approval at their faculty,
institute or other based on the applicable laws and regulations.

In your Internship Research Proposal, you address how ethical permission for the study will be (or has been) obtained. If there questions for your study, your IM-supervisor can contact the ERCPN.

 

Submitting the research proposal

The research proposal must be submitted within 6 weeks of commencing the research internship:

1. Upload the final version of your research proposal via collent-fpn.maastrichtuniversity.nl.  
2. Go to My internship(s) and use the Cloud icon with the up arrow in the column "Document(s)" to upload your research proposal. File name according to file naming convention >>.
3. Once you have uploaded your proposal, the supervisors will receive an automated notification from Collent.

NB If you want to receive feedback on your first version, you can discuss this with your supervisor(s). First version(s) can be sent via e-mail to your supervisor(s). Only the final version should be uploaded via Collent. For file naming,