Like many universities, the School of Computer Science requires applicants for our PhD in Computer Science to submit a research proposal as part of their application, along with other supporting documents like academic references and transcripts (= list of courses you have taken).
- If you would like to be my PhD student, it would help a lot if you contact me personally and discuss your research proposal with me. You will have the advantage that I will know precisely who you are and we will have already agreed on a research area before you formally apply to the University. It will also help me track your application.
- The most important thing is that the research proposal should be relevant to my interests for PhD research topics. Many PhD applications are rejected because the student proposes some mundane IT stuff or a kind of supersized undergraduate project that is not suitable as a thesis topic in Computer Science.
- Don't be intimidated by writing the proposal. You are not competing with established researchers, but only with other students in the same position as you. What we are looking for is aptitude and potential for research, rather than something perfect.
- You do not have to be impossibly specific or commit yourself to a precise thesis topic. In fact, much of the first year of a PhD will be spent on reviewing the state of the art and coming up with the official Thesis Proposal that identifies the topic of the dissertation.
- A research proposal is often expected to contain a timetable. Personally, I do not require a lot of detail here, as research is by its nature unpredictable. Nonetheless, it is important that you show that the proposed work is realistic for the timeframe. (Three years is standard for a full-time PhD in the UK, four years if you are a Teaching Assistant.)
- Quality counts, not quantity. I would be quite happy with a concise research proposal of four pages or so. But if you can write more, great. If I review your application, you can also expand your proposal later on.
- You should have learned something in your previous degree (by way of the final-year or Masters dissertation) about writing rigorously and in scientific style. Make good use of these skills.
- Read and cite relevant literature from Computer Science journals and major conferences. Google Scholar and the ACM Digital Library are useful for that. For the kind of research I am interested in supervising, the POPL and PLDI conferences are very relevant.
- Reading the literature helps with learning the appropriate style of writing in Computer Science.
- You could discuss relevant background knowledge that you already have, such as your (undergraduate or MSc) dissertation, or courses that you found particularly enlightening and relevant.
- What is expected in a PhD research proposal is strictly about your reseach interest, and their intersection with mine. You do not need one of those "personal statements" with guff like "Ever since I was three years old, it has been my dream to study at your esteemed institution..."
Different supervisors (= thesis advisors) may have different views on what constitutes a good proposal, and which parts are important. The above advice is based entirely on my personal views on what I would hope to see from an applicant who wants to work on a doctorate with me.