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• Modern Latin American Politics
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Writing a PhD research proposal

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Your proposal should persuade your readers of the significance and feasibility of your project, and of your suitability to carry it out. Any research project will naturally change shape as you begin work on it, and you are free to alter your approach later, in agreement with your supervisor. But, at this point, your proposal should give the most accurate picture possible of the research you wish to undertake for the PhD. Be as specific as you can about the material/subject you wish to research, your methods, and your hypotheses.

You are strongly advised to contact a prospective PhD supervisor well in advance of the application deadline, to check if they are willing and able to supervise you. They may also be able to give you feedback on the design and scope of your proposed project before you submit your application.

How will my research proposal be evaluated?

Your proposal will be assessed against a range of criteria. These are likely to include:

• the significance of the research project
• the quality and originality of your ideas
• the feasibility of your project: does it look likely that it will be completed within 3-4 years? Are your methods appropriately chosen? Has any planned fieldwork been carefully thought through and it is likely to yield useful results?
• how well you are able to situate your ideas within broader debates
• your knowledge of the subject and existing literature relevant to your project
• evidence of critical thinking
• the degree to which your previous studies have adequately equipped you for this project
• whether there is a good “fit” with the proposed supervisor
• the precision, accuracy and fluency of your written style, and your ability to formulate and structure ideas effectively

What should I include in my research proposal?

A research proposal should identify a problem, justify its importance, and propose a feasible and effective way of addressing it. You must therefore contextualize your research questions in the relevant literature, argue convincingly that these questions should be studied, and show that you are capable of answering them in the course of a PhD programme. You should draft a clear, concise, and coherent research proposal of 500-1000 words (excluding references), ensuring that you cover all the points below.

• Define your research questions clearly and succinctly, and explain why they are important.
• Indicate what has already been published on the subject and how your research will extend or challenge that work, or how it will fill a gap in scholarship. A proposal for a degree in Latin American studies can focus on a single country or sub-national space, but it should normally make reference to relevant literature on Latin America more broadly.
• Outline the intervention(s) you intend to make within broader debates and the original contribution(s) you expect to make to existing knowledge and/or conceptual frameworks.
• Explain the methods you will use in your research and justify them as appropriate.
• Give details of any fieldwork you intend to carry out: when, where, why, how. Mention specific people, organizations or archives, as appropriate.
• Outline the skills and experience you bring to the project, and how your previous studies have prepared you to carry it through to successful completion.

In addition, you should make sure that you include clear information on the following points, either in the research proposal itself, or elsewhere (prominently) in your application.

• Note any additional training you would need for the project.
• Name the supervisor you intend to work with and explain briefly why they would be a good supervisor for your project.
• Give reasons for wishing to undertake the PhD in this Centre and/or in Cambridge generally.
• Indicate how a PhD will fit into your current career plan.

Related Links

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The information captured in this section is used to aid the assessment of your application and to provide you with a suitable supervisor in the event that you receive and meet the terms of your offer letter.

The requirements of the information needed within the research title and research summary fields vary from course to course. For information on what is required for the course you are applying for, check the Course Directory .

Research title

If your course requires that you upload a research proposal as a part of your supporting documents you must be specific with your research title, unless stated otherwise in the Course Directory .

However, if you are yet to decide on a research title and are not required to be specific as per the information provided in the Course Directory , please indicate the area you are most likely to research, being as specific as you can.

Research summary

This field should be used to provide a summary of your research proposal (if required), not the full research proposal. The information you provide here will be used to ensure that the correct person reviews your application; however, this may also form part of the academic assessment of your application.

If you are not required to upload a full research proposal as per the Course Directory , you should use this question to provide details of the area of study that you are most interested in researching.

If you are required to provide a full research proposal as per the Course Directory , you will be able to upload this as a part of your supporting documentation upon submission of your application via your Self Service account, but you should use this question to summarise your proposal.

If you are yet to decide on a specific research proposal and you are not required to provide specific detail as per the information about your course in the Course Directory , please provide details of the area you are most likely to research with as much detail as possible.

Your research summary can be pasted from an external source, such as Microsoft Word, but must be of your own writing.

If you have pasted text from an external source, please take care to check that your text was not cut off at the end; the character limits found within text boxes in the application form are hard limits, meaning that you cannot enter more characters than noted. If you paste more than this limit, only the maximum amount of characters will be pasted.

You are also given an approximate number of words within the character limit for guidance; please note that this is not a definitive and accurate number of words.

If you paste from an external source, the characters used may differ between the platforms. Character returns count as two characters in the Applicant Portal.

Research supervisor

If you have a specific academic in mind who you would like to be supervised by, use this field to indicate so. If you have multiple preferred supervisors, you may list more than one in this field.

Please note, by indicating a preferred supervisor you are not guaranteeing that they will become your supervisor. Supervisor requests will only be accommodated where possible based on availability and compatibilty with your research proposal.

This question is optional, so if you do not have a preferred supervisor, leave this field blank.

Research experience

If you have worked on a research project, either for your first degree or subsequently, please describe your work here. Your account should be intelligible to anyone who is not a specialist in your field.

If you have no such experience, leaving this blank will not prejudice your application.

If you have pasted text from an external source, please take care to check that your text was not cut off at the end; the character limits found within text boxes in the application form are hard limits, meaning that you cannot enter more characters than noted under the textbox. If you paste more than this limit, only the maximum amount of characters will be pasted.

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Guidance for postgraduate applicants on writing a research proposal

Applicants should consult their prospective supervisor for advice both before writing, and for at least one round of feedback on their proposal.

The following points should be included when writing a research proposal:

• The topic that you propose to research: This should consist of a clear outline of the research you wish to do.
• The research context: relate your proposed research to other work in its field or related fields and indicate in what ways your research will differ.
• The contribution that your work will make to the field: this is your chance to show how you have arrived at your position and recognised the need for your research and what it is that makes it both new and important.
• The methodology and methods to be used in your study: this section should describe the methods and methodology you propose to employ as well as a justification for suitability of these methods in addressing your research topic.
• Fit with the Faculty and potential supervisor for PhD only: explain how your research fits in with the Faculty’s research interests and your potential supervisor.

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Guidance for Postgraduate Applicants on Writing a Research Proposal

Guidance for postgraduate applicants on writing a research proposal

  The following points should be included when writing a research proposal:

• The topic that you propose to research : This should consist of a clear outline of the research you wish to do.
• The research context : relate your proposed research to other work in its field or related fields and indicate in what ways your research will differ.
• The contribution that your work will make to the field : this is your chance to show how you have arrived at your position and recognised the need for your research and what it is that makes it both new and important.
• The methodology and methods to be used in your study : this section should describe the methods and methodology you propose to employ as well as a justification for suitability of these methods in addressing your research topic.
• Fit with the Faculty and potential supervisor for PhD only : explain how your research fits in with the Faculty’s research interests and your potential supervisor.

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Research proposal

Your research proposal is your opportunity to show your prospective supervisor that you have interesting ideas, and that you have some idea of how to test them.

It should consist of about two sides of A4, including references and it should include:

• clear empirical objective
• some idea of the research methods you would use
• some theoretical background

Firstly you need to lay out the theoretical background to your research question, and then provide a rationale for testing a hypothesis or two. You should briefly outline your methods, your sample, and the various techniques you hope to use. Finally give a brief statement of how the data will be analysed, and outline what various findings might lead to.

Current Postgraduates​ ​​​​​ ​

Introduction, open day 2024, application procedure​, mphil in psychology, phd in psychology, application deadline - to start october 2025.

Applications for October 2025 will open in September 2024.

The Department will continue to accept applications up until Thursday 27 March 2025  for October 2025 start date. 

Any application submitted after 3 December 2024 will not be considered for the funding round.

Research Councils​

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