Again the Valorization Centre of the School of Executive Education of Delft University of Technology organized a 3-day training on ‘How to write a successful Research Proposal’.

The courses were offered to scientists of various Faculties, among which also the Industrial Design Engineering. In this ‘human focused scientific environment’ very interesting discoveries were made ...

Following an inventory of reasons for failure and rejection of proposals, on the first day specific concepts of Project Cycle Management (PCM) and Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) were introduced and explained using many examples and anecdotes. An ‘alien’ case (Lake Ecosystem in Uganda) was used to demonstrate the quality assessment technique in order to realize how proposals ought to have been designed and written.

The next day participants were applying these principles and analytical techniques in a step-wise approach in small groups to their own proposals. Based upon the concept notes a 'network diagram' was prepared in each sub-group showing the key 'end-users' and 'suppliers'. Some even discovered potential 'saboteurs' which they had to take into account. The problems mentioned in the document and the objectives in the document were compared to each other and placed in a causal relationship ('tree'). Often not a simple job and quite revealing!

The third day was devoted to explaining and practicing the planning phase of the procedure through the different Logical Framework matrixes (What, How and Support matrixes). What a stunning and enlightening exercise we experienced to identify only ONE Project Purpose and to identify missing ASSUMPTIONS! The relationship between and OUTPUT and a RESULT (or OUTCOME) was mostly quite weak and distant. 'Having a model developed' does not simply lead to 'having a model adopted' ...  

The course was very much appreciated (closed with applause which is not so common in Holland) and the evaluation showed almost all maximum scores on all categories!

Some of the topics dealt with in the cases were typical Industrial Design oriented and had to do with research on e.g. personal preferences in determining behaviour and it was very interesting, though not always easy, to identify the causal relationship between problems or objectives as the LFA tool tries to establish logic in the 'tree building' exercises. Actually this exercise demonstrated gaps in knowledge and understanding that could be subject to research ...

An interesting approach got developed on how to go about establishing such a project within the science world. In the diagram we show how a research idea is developed into a relevant, feasible and possibly even sustainable social project that might be eligible for funding by a donor. 

The key exercise is to scan (brainstorming) all possible applications of the research topic and then to identify a potential donor that would be interested in such a relevant application (role of a Project Manager / Valorization Centre?). When ‘forking’ down from that objective or preferable social problem, other essential components complementing each other can be identified. The challenge now is to identify and bring together in this proposal different parties that could each be responsible for managing those components. Of course the proposal should now also contain a chapter on how to manage the partnership.