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Graduate School Applications: Writing a Research Statement

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What is a Research Statement?

A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete.

The research statement is a common component of a potential candidate’s application for post-undergraduate study. This may include applications for graduate programs, post-doctoral fellowships, or faculty positions. The research statement is often the primary way that a committee determines if a candidate’s interests and past experience make them a good fit for their program/institution.

What Should It Look Like?

Research statements are generally one to two single-spaced pages. You should be sure to thoroughly read and follow the length and content requirements for each individual application.

Your research statement should situate your work within the larger context of your field and show how your works contributes to, complicates, or counters other work being done. It should be written for an audience of other professionals in your field.

What Should It Include?

Your statement should start by articulating the broader field that you are working within and the larger question or questions that you are interested in answering. It should then move to articulate your specific interest.

The body of your statement should include a brief history of your past research . What questions did you initially set out to answer in your research project? What did you find? How did it contribute to your field? (i.e. did it lead to academic publications, conferences, or collaborations?). How did your past research propel you forward?

It should also address your present research . What questions are you actively trying to solve? What have you found so far? How are you connecting your research to the larger academic conversation? (i.e. do you have any publications under review, upcoming conferences, or other professional engagements?) What are the larger implications of your work?

Finally, it should describe the future trajectory on which you intend to take your research. What further questions do you want to solve? How do you intend to find answers to these questions? How can the institution to which you are applying help you in that process? What are the broader implications of your potential results?

Note: Make sure that the research project that you propose can be completed at the institution to which you are applying.

Other Considerations:

• What is the primary question that you have tried to address over the course of your academic career? Why is this question important to the field? How has each stage of your work related to that question?
• Include a few specific examples that show your success. What tangible solutions have you found to the question that you were trying to answer? How have your solutions impacted the larger field? Examples can include references to published findings, conference presentations, or other professional involvement.
• Be confident about your skills and abilities. The research statement is your opportunity to sell yourself to an institution. Show that you are self-motivated and passionate about your project.

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="general statement in research"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Research statement, what is a research statement.

The research statement (or statement of research interests) is a common component of academic job applications. It is a summary of your research accomplishments, current work, and future direction and potential of your work.

The statement can discuss specific issues such as:

• funding history and potential
• requirements for laboratory equipment and space and other resources
• potential research and industrial collaborations
• how your research contributes to your field
• future direction of your research

The research statement should be technical, but should be intelligible to all members of the department, including those outside your subdiscipline. So keep the “big picture” in mind. The strongest research statements present a readable, compelling, and realistic research agenda that fits well with the needs, facilities, and goals of the department.

Research statements can be weakened by:

• overly ambitious proposals
• lack of clear direction
• lack of big-picture focus
• inadequate attention to the needs and facilities of the department or position

Why a Research Statement?

• It conveys to search committees the pieces of your professional identity and charts the course of your scholarly journey.
• It communicates a sense that your research will follow logically from what you have done and that it will be different, important, and innovative.
• It gives a context for your research interests—Why does your research matter? The so what?
• It combines your achievements and current work with the proposal for upcoming research.
• areas of specialty and expertise
• potential to get funding
• academic strengths and abilities
• compatibility with the department or school
• ability to think and communicate like a serious scholar and/or scientist

Formatting of Research Statements

The goal of the research statement is to introduce yourself to a search committee, which will probably contain scientists both in and outside your field, and get them excited about your research. To encourage people to read it:

• make it one or two pages, three at most
• use informative section headings and subheadings
• use bullets
• use an easily readable font size
• make the margins a reasonable size

Organization of Research Statements

Think of the overarching theme guiding your main research subject area. Write an essay that lays out:

• The main theme(s) and why it is important and what specific skills you use to attack the problem.
• A few specific examples of problems you have already solved with success to build credibility and inform people outside your field about what you do.
• A discussion of the future direction of your research. This section should be really exciting to people both in and outside your field. Don’t sell yourself short; if you think your research could lead to answers for big important questions, say so!
• A final paragraph that gives a good overall impression of your research.

Writing Research Statements

• Avoid jargon. Make sure that you describe your research in language that many people outside your specific subject area can understand. Ask people both in and outside your field to read it before you send your application. A search committee won’t get excited about something they can’t understand.
• Write as clearly, concisely, and concretely as you can.
• Keep it at a summary level; give more detail in the job talk.
• Ask others to proofread it. Be sure there are no spelling errors.
• Convince the search committee not only that you are knowledgeable, but that you are the right person to carry out the research.
• Include information that sets you apart (e.g., publication in  Science, Nature,  or a prestigious journal in your field).
• What excites you about your research? Sound fresh.
• Include preliminary results and how to build on results.
• Point out how current faculty may become future partners.
• Acknowledge the work of others.
• Use language that shows you are an independent researcher.
• BUT focus on your research work, not yourself.
• Include potential funding partners and industrial collaborations. Be creative!
• Provide a summary of your research.
• Put in background material to give the context/relevance/significance of your research.
• List major findings, outcomes, and implications.
• Describe both current and planned (future) research.
• Communicate a sense that your research will follow logically from what you have done and that it will be unique, significant, and innovative (and easy to fund).

Describe Your Future Goals or Research Plans

• Major problem(s) you want to focus on in your research.
• The problem’s relevance and significance to the field.
• Your specific goals for the next three to five years, including potential impact and outcomes.
• If you know what a particular agency funds, you can name the agency and briefly outline a proposal.
• Give broad enough goals so that if one area doesn’t get funded, you can pursue other research goals and funding.

Identify Potential Funding Sources

• Almost every institution wants to know whether you’ll be able to get external funding for research.
• Try to provide some possible sources of funding for the research, such as NIH, NSF, foundations, private agencies.
• Mention past funding, if appropriate.

Be Realistic

There is a delicate balance between a realistic research statement where you promise to work on problems you really think you can solve and over-reaching or dabbling in too many subject areas. Select an over-arching theme for your research statement and leave miscellaneous ideas or projects out. Everyone knows that you will work on more than what you mention in this statement.

Consider Also Preparing a Longer Version

• A longer version (five–15 pages) can be brought to your interview. (Check with your advisor to see if this is necessary.)
• You may be asked to describe research plans and budget in detail at the campus interview. Be prepared.
• Include laboratory needs (how much budget you need for equipment, how many grad assistants, etc.) to start up the research.

Samples of Research Statements

To find sample research statements with content specific to your discipline, search on the internet for your discipline + “Research Statement.”

• University of Pennsylvania Sample Research Statement
• Advice on writing a Research Statement (Plan) from the journal  Science

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Writing an Effective Research Statement

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A research statement is a summary of research achievements and a proposal for upcoming research. It often includes both current aims and findings, and future goals. Research statements are usually requested as part of a relevant job application process, and often assist in the identification of appropriate applicants. Learn more about how to craft an effective research statement.

WTO / Education / 11 Perfect Academic Research Statement Examples (with Guide)

11 Perfect Academic Research Statement Examples (with Guide)

Academic documents are often needed as we progress through our lives and careers. Among the most commonly used academic documents is the research statement. A research statement is usually a document not exceeding three pages that convince the board or school on a research topic. This document aims at explaining what the research you are about to conduct is about and what you hope to find out by the end of it. The document is, for the most part, short, well defined and robust.

Samples & Examples

Academic Research Statement Examples guide researchers in organizing their thoughts, presenting their ideas effectively, and highlighting the significance of their work. To further enhance convenience, here are free downloadable templates that will enable you to easily access and adapt them to suit their specific needs.

Purpose of Research Statement

The research statement is as mentioned above aimed at convincing the reader on the essence of the research you are about to start. It usually covers the main points on your plans and expected results in brief. When done properly, it should explain why you think the research is relevant, what you expect to find, what factors you plan to consider during your research, methodologies, and data collection methods, what your motivation is, and how it can benefit other academic subjects or researchers.

How a Research Statement Works for You

A research statement allows your readers to understand your potential, expertise, and skill in the field you may want to conduct your research in. By doing this; you can explain how your research can help them as well as the common good. It is used for various purposes. One common use is in helping in the hiring process.

Once a panel can determine your level of experience and expertise, they can then know whether you are a good fit to work as part of a research project. It is also a good way of gaining funding. The statement is usually an overview of a research proposal . When done right, it has the potential to encourage an investor to fund your research.

How to Write a Research Statement

For a research statement to get its message across, a good format is required, poor formatting may have you lose structure and deliver your points in a disorderly fashion. A great statement should follow the following format:

Introduction

As any other academic document, a research statement needs a good introduction. The introduction aims at defining your research agenda. This section allows you to convince your reader that you are strong and ready to embark on the research challenge. You can state your previous achievements, foundation, as well as express your passion in the subject matter. This section can detail your expertise on the research topic and any other ongoing research topics that may aid your research.

State your focus

This section works to identify the problem your research aims at solving. You can state what the problem is, why the research has not been undertaken before by other people, how you plan to work on the challenge as well as the approach you plan to use.

Importance of your research and academics

As part of convincing your reader, this section aims at making them understand how your previous experience and interests can help in the research. This section convinces your reader that you are the right person for the job.

 Summarize

As part of your conclusion, this section works to summarize your earlier mentioned points. This includes your research goals and project.

Proper delivery of the statement will convince your reader of your ability to undertake the challenge as well as your long-term goals. Following the above-described flow assures a flow of information that best explains all points needed in a systematic manner.

Format of Academic Research Statements

The objective of the research statement is to introduce yourself to a search committee. Which will most likely contain scientists both in and outside your field of study, and get them excited about your research.

To encourage people to read the statement:

• Use bullets
• Make the margins a reasonable size
• Make it one or two pages long, three at most
• Use informative section headings and subheadings
• Use an easy to read font type and size

Writing a great and effective research statement is not as easy as it may sound; even the most seasoned practitioners encounter problems and challenges daily. The statement needed might seem obvious to them but difficult to describe to non-specialists. One may not have thought about how to quantify it or how to justify the required statement concerning other agencies or national priorities. A serious challenge to them might not even be on a decision maker’s radar screen.

If, at first, you fail to succeed, don’t lose hope. If your statement is not selected, try to find out why. If possible, get the reviewer’s comments. Were they able to understand your research statement? If not, what could you have done differently to make it easily understandable to them? Did they consider it as a good statement but not a top priority or high potential payoff? Do not be embarrassed or discouraged by constructive reviews; they are the best guidance you can get to write better statements.

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Writing a research statement

By michael ernst, december, 2011 last updated: march 29, 2016.

A research statement lays out your vision of your research, including both your accomplishments to date and your plans for the future. It is a required part of many applications — for graduate school , for fellowships , for jobs (especially academic jobs ), for awards, etc.

This is a short collection of advice regarding some mistakes I have seen people make in their statements. It is incomplete at present, but still useful if it helps you avoid those common but important blunders.

Write your statement in the first person.

Your statement will likely discuss multiple research projects or results. Readers are unlikely to remember each of the projects in detail (though they may remember that you are broad, which is good). It will be easiest for readers to remember your work, and equally importantly to place it in context as they read your statement, if you can show how the projects are related. They might be in the same research subarea, or use related techniques, or stem from your own experiences, etc. Find a way to tie them together, which will make readers more likely to understand them. Furthermore, readers will be more likely to believe that you may continue to produce similar results in the future, if they see a pattern. After starting out with an overview (which might describe the general topic and its importance), tie the description of each result or project into that overview.

Somewhere — maybe at the beginning, though more likely at the end — you need to bring the statement to life and let your personality show through. Permit yourself to gush about how much you enjoy research: show that you really care about this and why. For example, you might state how important it is to you and how it has changed the way you think about your research area computing. Another way to address this (not incompatible with the others) is to say why you got involved in research at all; that might go at the beginning. If readers believe that you are enthusiastic about the topic, they will be more likely to believe that you are doing a great job and will be more favorably inclined toward you in general.

Writing a Research Statement

What is a research statement.

A research statement is a short document that provides a brief history of your past research experience, the current state of your research, and the future work you intend to complete.

The research statement is a common component of a potential student's application for post-undergraduate study. The research statement is often the primary way for departments and faculty to determine if a student's interests and past experience make them a good fit for their program/institution.

Although many programs ask for ‘personal statements,' these are not really meant to be biographies or life stories. What we, at Tufts Psychology, hope to find out is how well your abilities, interests, experiences and goals would fit within our program.

We encourage you to illustrate how your lived experience demonstrates qualities that are critical to success in pursuing a PhD in our program. Earning a PhD in any program is hard! Thus, as you are relaying your past, present, and future research interests, we are interested in learning how your lived experiences showcase the following:

• Perseverance
• Resilience in the face of difficulty
• Motivation to undertake intensive research training
• Involvement in efforts to promote equity and inclusion in your professional and/or personal life
• Unique perspectives that enrich the research questions you ask, the methods you use, and the communities to whom your research applies

How Do I Even Start Writing One?

Before you begin your statement, read as much as possible about our program so you can tailor your statement and convince the admissions committee that you will be a good fit.

Prepare an outline of the topics you want to cover (e.g., professional objectives and personal background) and list supporting material under each main topic. Write a rough draft in which you transform your outline into prose. Set it aside and read it a week later. If it still sounds good, go to the next stage. If not, rewrite it until it sounds right.

Do not feel bad if you do not have a great deal of experience in psychology to write about; no one who is about to graduate from college does. Do explain your relevant experiences (e.g., internships or research projects), but do not try to turn them into events of cosmic proportion. Be honest, sincere, and objective.

What Information Should It Include?

Your research statement should describe your previous experience, how that experience will facilitate your graduate education in our department, and why you are choosing to pursue graduate education in our department. Your goal should be to demonstrate how well you will fit in our program and in a specific laboratory.

Make sure to link your research interests to the expertise and research programs of faculty here. Identify at least one faculty member with whom you would like to work. Make sure that person is accepting graduate students when you apply. Read some of their papers and describe how you think the research could be extended in one or more novel directions. Again, specificity is a good idea.

Make sure to describe your relevant experience (e.g., honors thesis, research assistantship) in specific detail. If you have worked on a research project, discuss that project in detail. Your research statement should describe what you did on the project and how your role impacted your understanding of the research question.

Describe the concrete skills you have acquired prior to graduate school and the skills you hope to acquire.

Articulate why you want to pursue a graduate degree at our institution and with specific faculty in our department.

Make sure to clearly state your core research interests and explain why you think they are scientifically and/or practically important. Again, be specific.

What Should It Look Like?

Your final statement should be succinct. You should be sure to thoroughly read and follow the length and content requirements for each individual application. Finally, stick to the points requested by each program, and avoid lengthy personal or philosophical discussions.

How Do I Know if It is Ready?

Ask for feedback from at least one professor, preferably in the area you are interested in. Feedback from friends and family may also be useful. Many colleges and universities also have writing centers that are able to provide general feedback.

Of course, read and proofread the document multiple times. It is not always easy to be a thoughtful editor of your own work, so don't be afraid to ask for help.

Lastly, consider signing up to take part in the Application Statement Feedback Program . The program provides constructive feedback and editing support for the research statements of applicants to Psychology PhD programs in the United States.

• Appendix A: How to Write an Effective Research Statement
• Research Funding Guidebook
• Planning and Development
• Strategic Research Documents 
• Unfunded and Partially Funded Research Needs
• Federal Research Programs
• International Research Programs
• State Departments of Transportation Programs
• Transportation Research Board
• University Transportation Centers
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: What Are the Characteristics of the Research You Would Like to Have Funded?
• Chapter 3: Which Research Program is the Best Fit for Your Research Statement?
• Chapter 4: More About Proposed, Ongoing, and Completed Research
• Chapter 5: General Advice and Summary
• Appendix B: How to Submit Updates to this Guidebook
• Appendix C: Contributors

More Links:

• AASHTO Transportation and Environmental Research Ideas (TERI) Database
• AASHTO-NCHRP Strategic Highway Safety Plan
• Concrete Pavement Roadmap
• FHWA Corporate Master Plan for Research and Deployment of Technology & Innovation
• Funding Sources for Transportation Research: Competitive Programs
• Highway Infrastructure and Operations Safety Research Needs
• How to Write an Effective Research Problem Statement
• Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe
• Long Range Strategic Issues Facing the Transportation Industry
• National Transportation Integrated Search
• NTL Repository and Open Science Access Portal (rosap)
• Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS)
• Transport Research and Innovation Portal (TRIP)
• Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
• Transportation and the Environment Research Ideas (TERI) Database
• Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Program Website
• Transportation Research Needs Portal Pilot Site
• Transportation System Preservation Roadmap
• TRB Research in Progress (RIP) Database
• TRB Research Needs Statements (RNS) Database
• TRB Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID) Database
• TRB Webinar – A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy
• TRB Webinar – How to Write an Effective Research Problem Statement
• USDOT Research Hub

Writing an effective research statement is not a simple matter, even to transportation practitioners who face serious problems and challenges on a daily basis. The research needed might be obvious to them but difficult to describe to non-specialists. They may not have thought about how to quantify it or how to justify the needed research with respect to other agency or national priorities. A serious problem to them might not even be on a decision maker’s radar screen.

This document was written to provide some guidance on developing research statements and/or research proposals for funding consideration. The categories below are based on those of the  National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) , but they should be adaptable to any research funding program.

The research statement title should briefly and immediately convey to the reader what the proposed study is about. It does not have to capture every element, nuance, and expected task of the research problem. It is like the title of a book—it should attract your attention, quickly convey the subject, draw you in, and make you want to read what’s inside.

Here’s a general rule: the more deeply you are involved in a particular subject, the harder it is for you to step back and see the big picture. You may be tempted to title your research statement something like this . . .

Collection, analysis, and compilation of current best practices for the design of roundabouts for U.S. roadways and how those design elements will impact safety, capacity, and contribute to effective traffic management objectives . . .

rather than this . . .

Design guide for roundabouts.

The first alternative might be a good title for a PhD thesis; the second title is a far better choice for a research statement.

How will a title reflect on the research statement? Can it really have an impact on whether or not it is funded? The answer is yes, for at least three reasons:

• Branding is important—a good title will help the reviewer establish a connection with your proposal;
• A negative first impression is likely to linger as the reviewer reads the rest of the research statement; and
• If the title is confusing, chances are the rest of the research statement will be just as hard to understand.

A good title is like a good sound bite—people will remember it.

Hint: Look at every word in your title and ask yourself if it’s necessary.

The background statement is your opportunity to convince the reviewer that the research statement addresses a serious issue and merits funding. It should set the context and relate the particular issue to larger national or regional goals and objectives. If the research statement is about some new technology that can reduce the severity of vehicle crashes, begin with statements about the overall importance of road safety. Talk about the economic and societal costs of crashes. Talk about national goals to improve road safety. Then describe how the particular subject of your research statement relates to those national or agency needs.

Similarly, if you are proposing a study that will reduce congestion on urban streets, describe the extent of the problem. How much time is lost due to congestion nationally? How much does it impact air quality? How does your particular problem contribute to the solution? If your research statement describes a method or practice that will improve efficiencies in your agency procedures, how much time is wasted by current methods?

Do your homework. As best you can, estimate how much time, money, or lives are lost as a result of this specific problem you want to address. Think about it: If you can’t estimate that, why should you expect your project to be funded? 

Don’t be parochial. Demonstrating that something is a serious problem in your state doesn’t make it a national issue. If you know that this problem is affecting other regions or states, name them in your research statement. The more people affected, the greater the payoff if the problem is solved. Involve others and garner support. If you can get other agencies or committees to endorse your research statement, you’re doing a better job of demonstrating that the effort warrants funding.

Hint: When writing the background section, keep thinking “Why should my CEO care about this problem?”

Describe in very brief terms what the expected product of this research will be. The objective should be short, concise, and accurate. Don’t put details in the objective related to how the study will be done unless some new or innovative research methodology is the key element of the research. The details will be in the research plan and reflected in the final product. If your objective is “to produce a new fuel-efficient vehicle,” say so. Don’t say that the objective is “to produce a new fuel-efficient vehicle, including the design, construction, testing, and installation of all necessary components including body, frame, power train, tires, wheels, seats, mirrors, and other appurtenances to be determined through a survey of user needs, performance measures, and financial constraints.” If those things need to be done to accomplish the objective, put them in task statements.

Hint: Go back and read the advice above on titling your research statement. A very reasonable objective statement is “…to develop (insert your title).”

Potential Benefits

This is where you need to justify the funding of your research statement. If the program can only fund 20 projects from a pool of 50 good research statements, why should yours be picked? You need to be specific and provide as much detail as you can on the potential benefits of your project. What are the consequences of  not  doing this work? How will it affect productivity, budget, and customers’ quality of life? Here are some examples of compelling statements,  if  they are justifiable:

“Streamlining the review process could cut six months off average project delivery times.”

“Sixty-five percent of road users indicate that this is a major problem. Resolving this issue could result in a significant increase in customer satisfaction.”

“If this project is brought to a successful conclusion with the results implemented, and can produce only a 2% increase in pavement life, the savings to highway agencies and road users could be in excess of $5 million a year.”

“This project is a necessary step in the development of an overall safety plan that could save thousands of lives every year.”

Hint: Be positive but honest. Use real numbers if you can measure or estimate them

Relationships to the Existing Body of Knowledge The first time a reviewer reads your research statement, it will probably remind them of other projects they’ve heard about on the same or similar topics. They may believe that your research is duplicative of work that has already been done. You need to anticipate this and explain how your project is different—how it builds on the existing body of research, how your proposed study takes a different approach, how it uses new methodologies or expanded data sets, or how it pulls together all the existing work into an implementable product. Describe any shortcomings or deficiencies in the current body of research and show how your project will address them.

Base your comments on a thorough review of the relevant literature and ongoing research. The places to start in the transportation sector are the  Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)  and  Research in Progress (RIP)  databases. If you need help, contact your librarian or information specialist. If you don’t have one, contact a major reference library or the TRB Information Services . If your research statement fails to find or identify a high-profile project on the same or similar topic, your credibility will be suspect.

Hint: Be specific in describing the research statement’s relationship to the existing body of knowledge. Reference the most significant related studies by name and discuss how your project will advance the state of knowledge and yield new or additional practical benefits.

If you have identified specific tasks that absolutely have to be part of the project work plan, include them in the research statement. However, don’t let your own biases determine the research plan. Focus your attention on providing a full and accurate description of the final product. To the extent possible, give the proposing research team the flexibility to describe a research plan that they feel will accomplish the project objectives.

Hint: The more detail you include in the task statements, the less opportunity a researcher has to show initiative and innovation, and the more every proposal will come in looking the same. Don’t be prescriptive.

Follow-on and Implementation Activities Good research advances the state of knowledge in transportation. For long-term, strategic research, several phases of research may be needed to achieve an implementable solution. Address follow-on research as well as implementation in your research statement to demonstrate that you are aware of the scale and scope of the research, the potential barriers and impediments to implementation, and the activities and champions needed to support the end work. This increases the comfort level of the funding agency in believing that the results of the research project have a good chance of finding their way into practice and hence yield the benefits to their fullest potential. If you are developing a product that will require ongoing maintenance (like software or a website clearinghouse), make sure you identify who will take responsibility for it.

Hint: If you are aware of a specific national body that will need to take ownership of the project results, identify them in your research statement. It may be an AASHTO committee representing the stakeholders in this particular subject area in all 50 states. Make sure this group is aware and supportive of your research statement.

Estimated Funding Requirements

This may be the most difficult part of the research statement if you do not have research experience in the academic or private sector. How can you possibly estimate how much money will be needed to achieve the project objectives? Here are some general guidelines.

What kind of tasks do you anticipate? What is a reasonable amount of time to accomplish these tasks? Personnel time will most likely make up the majority of the budget. Will the tasks be labor-intensive, require specialized equipment, or a specific software? If field or laboratory testing will be required, it will be more expensive than “desk-based analysis.” If specialized equipment or software must be purchased or developed, the costs can escalate quickly.

Get familiar with the charge-out rates of academics and private consultants. You are not simply paying the researchers’ salaries; you are also paying for their overhead, benefits, administrative costs, and all direct expenses. Bear this in mind when estimating the total cost for each person-year of work on the project. A private consulting firm will add a fixed fee as their profit margin.

Some programs leave the budget estimate to the research statement submitter; statements should identify the funds needed and provide a budget, and cost is one of the evaluation criteria. In other programs, like the  NCHRP , a fixed amount is provided by the funding body. If submitting to an existing program, take a look at other projects funded by the same program and determine the typical funding range. If you propose an amount well beyond this, you had better be prepared to back it up with a high estimated payoff. On the other hand, don’t lowball the figure. If you can’t achieve the project objectives with the amount you requested, the funding body is not likely to be receptive when you come back and ask for more.

Hint: If you work with consultants or academics on TRB or other committees, talk with them about the level of resources needed to undertake the work. They are in a position to review the project objectives and help you come up with a reasonable budget estimate.

Concluding Comments and Tips

There are many different research funding programs out there. If you can identify the most appropriate program for your research statement, you can tailor it for the best chance of success.

For the most part, research projects will be selected for funding by “educated generalists”—managers and executives who are not subject experts (or at least not experts in  every  subject). That is the audience for whom you need to write. Ask someone you know and trust from outside your own field of expertise to review your research statement. If he or she doesn’t understand something in it, chances are many of the reviewers will have the same reaction.

Get as much support as possible for your research statement before you submit it. Show it to your colleagues, other experts, and managers in your organization to get their advice. Modify the statement if necessary to address their ideas. Don’t forget to review the research statement for correct spelling and grammar.

If at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up. If your research statement is not selected, find out why. If possible, get the reviewers’ comments. Did the reviewers understand the research statement? If not, what could you have done to make it more understandable? Was it considered a good statement but not a top priority or not a high potential payoff? If so, did you do a sufficient job estimating and describing the potential benefits?

Hint: Don’t be discouraged or embarrassed by constructive reviews; they are the best guidance you will ever get for writing better research statements.

Related Resources

TRB Webinar: How to Write an Effective Research Statement

On Monday July 13, 2009, TRB conducted a webinar that examined ways to write an effective research statement. For more details, view a  summary  of this webinar, or view the  recorded session . You will need  Windows Media Player 9 or higher  to view the presentation. Writing Effective Research Needs Statements

This January 2013 presentation describes how to write an effective research needs statement. View the presentation along with the  presentation talking points  for the most effective learning experience.

TRB Electronic Circular E-C194: Literature Searches and Literature Reviews for Transportation Research Projects

This March 2015 publication is a concise resource for identifying relevant transportation research and integrating the results into a literature review. The steps involved in conducting a literature review will help you write clear, succinct research statement titles, background statements, objectives, and potential benefits.

Literature Searches and Literature Reviews for Transportation Research Projects (Online Excerpt)

This online guide is based on the March 2015 TRB Electronic Circular E-C194 and includes information organized in the following topic areas:

• Getting started;
• Where to search;
• Examples of effective transportation literature reviews;
• Tutorials on writing literature reviews;
• Examples of an annotated bibliography;
• Zotero (bibliographic manager);
• Data and data management guides; and
• All transportation research guides.

Transportation Research Methods: A Guide to Searching for Funding Opportunities

This March 2017 Missouri Department of Transportation report describes a project that developed a training methodology focused on external funding. Hands-on training presented the basics of external funding identification, team building, working with collaborative partners, and proposal element design. Actual proposals were reviewed for completeness and readability. This final report summarizes the project’s activities and serves as a research methods handbook.

Thesis and Purpose Statements

Use the guidelines below to learn the differences between thesis and purpose statements.

In the first stages of writing, thesis or purpose statements are usually rough or ill-formed and are useful primarily as planning tools.

A thesis statement or purpose statement will emerge as you think and write about a topic. The statement can be restricted or clarified and eventually worked into an introduction.

As you revise your paper, try to phrase your thesis or purpose statement in a precise way so that it matches the content and organization of your paper.

Thesis statements

A thesis statement is a sentence that makes an assertion about a topic and predicts how the topic will be developed. It does not simply announce a topic: it says something about the topic.

Good: X has made a significant impact on the teenage population due to its . . . Bad: In this paper, I will discuss X.

A thesis statement makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of the paper. It summarizes the conclusions that the writer has reached about the topic.

A thesis statement is generally located near the end of the introduction. Sometimes in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or an entire paragraph.

A thesis statement is focused and specific enough to be proven within the boundaries of the paper. Key words (nouns and verbs) should be specific, accurate, and indicative of the range of research, thrust of the argument or analysis, and the organization of supporting information.

Purpose statements

A purpose statement announces the purpose, scope, and direction of the paper. It tells the reader what to expect in a paper and what the specific focus will be.

Common beginnings include:

“This paper examines . . .,” “The aim of this paper is to . . .,” and “The purpose of this essay is to . . .”

A purpose statement makes a promise to the reader about the development of the argument but does not preview the particular conclusions that the writer has drawn.

A purpose statement usually appears toward the end of the introduction. The purpose statement may be expressed in several sentences or even an entire paragraph.

A purpose statement is specific enough to satisfy the requirements of the assignment. Purpose statements are common in research papers in some academic disciplines, while in other disciplines they are considered too blunt or direct. If you are unsure about using a purpose statement, ask your instructor.

This paper will examine the ecological destruction of the Sahel preceding the drought and the causes of this disintegration of the land. The focus will be on the economic, political, and social relationships which brought about the environmental problems in the Sahel.

Sample purpose and thesis statements

The following example combines a purpose statement and a thesis statement (bold).

The goal of this paper is to examine the effects of Chile’s agrarian reform on the lives of rural peasants. The nature of the topic dictates the use of both a chronological and a comparative analysis of peasant lives at various points during the reform period. . . The Chilean reform example provides evidence that land distribution is an essential component of both the improvement of peasant conditions and the development of a democratic society. More extensive and enduring reforms would likely have allowed Chile the opportunity to further expand these horizons.

For more tips about writing thesis statements, take a look at our new handout on Developing a Thesis Statement.

Writing Process and Structure

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Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Developing a Thesis Statement

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• The Research Problem/Question
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
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• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
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• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
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• Bibliography

A research problem is a definite or clear expression [statement] about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or within existing practice that points to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition, or present a value question. In the social and behavioral sciences, studies are most often framed around examining a problem that needs to be understood and resolved in order to improve society and the human condition.

Bryman, Alan. “The Research Question in Social Research: What is its Role?” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 10 (2007): 5-20; Guba, Egon G., and Yvonna S. Lincoln. “Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research.” In Handbook of Qualitative Research . Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, editors. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994), pp. 105-117; Pardede, Parlindungan. “Identifying and Formulating the Research Problem." Research in ELT: Module 4 (October 2018): 1-13; Li, Yanmei, and Sumei Zhang. "Identifying the Research Problem." In Applied Research Methods in Urban and Regional Planning . (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2022), pp. 13-21.

Importance of...

The purpose of a problem statement is to:

• Introduce the reader to the importance of the topic being studied . The reader is oriented to the significance of the study.
• Anchors the research questions, hypotheses, or assumptions to follow . It offers a concise statement about the purpose of your paper.
• Place the topic into a particular context that defines the parameters of what is to be investigated.
• Provide the framework for reporting the results and indicates what is probably necessary to conduct the study and explain how the findings will present this information.

In the social sciences, the research problem establishes the means by which you must answer the "So What?" question. This declarative question refers to a research problem surviving the relevancy test [the quality of a measurement procedure that provides repeatability and accuracy]. Note that answering the "So What?" question requires a commitment on your part to not only show that you have reviewed the literature, but that you have thoroughly considered the significance of the research problem and its implications applied to creating new knowledge and understanding or informing practice.

To survive the "So What" question, problem statements should possess the following attributes:

• Clarity and precision [a well-written statement does not make sweeping generalizations and irresponsible pronouncements; it also does include unspecific determinates like "very" or "giant"],
• Demonstrate a researchable topic or issue [i.e., feasibility of conducting the study is based upon access to information that can be effectively acquired, gathered, interpreted, synthesized, and understood],
• Identification of what would be studied, while avoiding the use of value-laden words and terms,
• Identification of an overarching question or small set of questions accompanied by key factors or variables,
• Identification of key concepts and terms,
• Articulation of the study's conceptual boundaries or parameters or limitations,
• Some generalizability in regards to applicability and bringing results into general use,
• Conveyance of the study's importance, benefits, and justification [i.e., regardless of the type of research, it is important to demonstrate that the research is not trivial],
• Does not have unnecessary jargon or overly complex sentence constructions; and,
• Conveyance of more than the mere gathering of descriptive data providing only a snapshot of the issue or phenomenon under investigation.

Bryman, Alan. “The Research Question in Social Research: What is its Role?” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 10 (2007): 5-20; Brown, Perry J., Allen Dyer, and Ross S. Whaley. "Recreation Research—So What?" Journal of Leisure Research 5 (1973): 16-24; Castellanos, Susie. Critical Writing and Thinking. The Writing Center. Dean of the College. Brown University; Ellis, Timothy J. and Yair Levy Nova. "Framework of Problem-Based Research: A Guide for Novice Researchers on the Development of a Research-Worthy Problem." Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline 11 (2008); Thesis and Purpose Statements. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Thesis Statements. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Selwyn, Neil. "‘So What?’…A Question that Every Journal Article Needs to Answer." Learning, Media, and Technology 39 (2014): 1-5; Shoket, Mohd. "Research Problem: Identification and Formulation." International Journal of Research 1 (May 2014): 512-518.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Types and Content

There are four general conceptualizations of a research problem in the social sciences:

• Casuist Research Problem -- this type of problem relates to the determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience by analyzing moral dilemmas through the application of general rules and the careful distinction of special cases.
• Difference Research Problem -- typically asks the question, “Is there a difference between two or more groups or treatments?” This type of problem statement is used when the researcher compares or contrasts two or more phenomena. This a common approach to defining a problem in the clinical social sciences or behavioral sciences.
• Descriptive Research Problem -- typically asks the question, "what is...?" with the underlying purpose to describe the significance of a situation, state, or existence of a specific phenomenon. This problem is often associated with revealing hidden or understudied issues.
• Relational Research Problem -- suggests a relationship of some sort between two or more variables to be investigated. The underlying purpose is to investigate specific qualities or characteristics that may be connected in some way.

A problem statement in the social sciences should contain :

• A lead-in that helps ensure the reader will maintain interest over the study,
• A declaration of originality [e.g., mentioning a knowledge void or a lack of clarity about a topic that will be revealed in the literature review of prior research],
• An indication of the central focus of the study [establishing the boundaries of analysis], and
• An explanation of the study's significance or the benefits to be derived from investigating the research problem.

NOTE:   A statement describing the research problem of your paper should not be viewed as a thesis statement that you may be familiar with from high school. Given the content listed above, a description of the research problem is usually a short paragraph in length.

II.  Sources of Problems for Investigation

The identification of a problem to study can be challenging, not because there's a lack of issues that could be investigated, but due to the challenge of formulating an academically relevant and researchable problem which is unique and does not simply duplicate the work of others. To facilitate how you might select a problem from which to build a research study, consider these sources of inspiration:

Deductions from Theory This relates to deductions made from social philosophy or generalizations embodied in life and in society that the researcher is familiar with. These deductions from human behavior are then placed within an empirical frame of reference through research. From a theory, the researcher can formulate a research problem or hypothesis stating the expected findings in certain empirical situations. The research asks the question: “What relationship between variables will be observed if theory aptly summarizes the state of affairs?” One can then design and carry out a systematic investigation to assess whether empirical data confirm or reject the hypothesis, and hence, the theory.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Identifying a problem that forms the basis for a research study can come from academic movements and scholarship originating in disciplines outside of your primary area of study. This can be an intellectually stimulating exercise. A review of pertinent literature should include examining research from related disciplines that can reveal new avenues of exploration and analysis. An interdisciplinary approach to selecting a research problem offers an opportunity to construct a more comprehensive understanding of a very complex issue that any single discipline may be able to provide.

Interviewing Practitioners The identification of research problems about particular topics can arise from formal interviews or informal discussions with practitioners who provide insight into new directions for future research and how to make research findings more relevant to practice. Discussions with experts in the field, such as, teachers, social workers, health care providers, lawyers, business leaders, etc., offers the chance to identify practical, “real world” problems that may be understudied or ignored within academic circles. This approach also provides some practical knowledge which may help in the process of designing and conducting your study.

Personal Experience Don't undervalue your everyday experiences or encounters as worthwhile problems for investigation. Think critically about your own experiences and/or frustrations with an issue facing society or related to your community, your neighborhood, your family, or your personal life. This can be derived, for example, from deliberate observations of certain relationships for which there is no clear explanation or witnessing an event that appears harmful to a person or group or that is out of the ordinary.

Relevant Literature The selection of a research problem can be derived from a thorough review of pertinent research associated with your overall area of interest. This may reveal where gaps exist in understanding a topic or where an issue has been understudied. Research may be conducted to: 1) fill such gaps in knowledge; 2) evaluate if the methodologies employed in prior studies can be adapted to solve other problems; or, 3) determine if a similar study could be conducted in a different subject area or applied in a different context or to different study sample [i.e., different setting or different group of people]. Also, authors frequently conclude their studies by noting implications for further research; read the conclusion of pertinent studies because statements about further research can be a valuable source for identifying new problems to investigate. The fact that a researcher has identified a topic worthy of further exploration validates the fact it is worth pursuing.

III.  What Makes a Good Research Statement?

A good problem statement begins by introducing the broad area in which your research is centered, gradually leading the reader to the more specific issues you are investigating. The statement need not be lengthy, but a good research problem should incorporate the following features:

1.  Compelling Topic The problem chosen should be one that motivates you to address it but simple curiosity is not a good enough reason to pursue a research study because this does not indicate significance. The problem that you choose to explore must be important to you, but it must also be viewed as important by your readers and to a the larger academic and/or social community that could be impacted by the results of your study. 2.  Supports Multiple Perspectives The problem must be phrased in a way that avoids dichotomies and instead supports the generation and exploration of multiple perspectives. A general rule of thumb in the social sciences is that a good research problem is one that would generate a variety of viewpoints from a composite audience made up of reasonable people. 3.  Researchability This isn't a real word but it represents an important aspect of creating a good research statement. It seems a bit obvious, but you don't want to find yourself in the midst of investigating a complex research project and realize that you don't have enough prior research to draw from for your analysis. There's nothing inherently wrong with original research, but you must choose research problems that can be supported, in some way, by the resources available to you. If you are not sure if something is researchable, don't assume that it isn't if you don't find information right away--seek help from a librarian !

NOTE:   Do not confuse a research problem with a research topic. A topic is something to read and obtain information about, whereas a problem is something to be solved or framed as a question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution, or explained as a source of perplexity, distress, or vexation. In short, a research topic is something to be understood; a research problem is something that needs to be investigated.

IV.  Asking Analytical Questions about the Research Problem

Research problems in the social and behavioral sciences are often analyzed around critical questions that must be investigated. These questions can be explicitly listed in the introduction [i.e., "This study addresses three research questions about women's psychological recovery from domestic abuse in multi-generational home settings..."], or, the questions are implied in the text as specific areas of study related to the research problem. Explicitly listing your research questions at the end of your introduction can help in designing a clear roadmap of what you plan to address in your study, whereas, implicitly integrating them into the text of the introduction allows you to create a more compelling narrative around the key issues under investigation. Either approach is appropriate.

The number of questions you attempt to address should be based on the complexity of the problem you are investigating and what areas of inquiry you find most critical to study. Practical considerations, such as, the length of the paper you are writing or the availability of resources to analyze the issue can also factor in how many questions to ask. In general, however, there should be no more than four research questions underpinning a single research problem.

Given this, well-developed analytical questions can focus on any of the following:

• Highlights a genuine dilemma, area of ambiguity, or point of confusion about a topic open to interpretation by your readers;
• Yields an answer that is unexpected and not obvious rather than inevitable and self-evident;
• Provokes meaningful thought or discussion;
• Raises the visibility of the key ideas or concepts that may be understudied or hidden;
• Suggests the need for complex analysis or argument rather than a basic description or summary; and,
• Offers a specific path of inquiry that avoids eliciting generalizations about the problem.

NOTE:   Questions of how and why concerning a research problem often require more analysis than questions about who, what, where, and when. You should still ask yourself these latter questions, however. Thinking introspectively about the who, what, where, and when of a research problem can help ensure that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of the problem under investigation and helps define the scope of the study in relation to the problem.

V.  Mistakes to Avoid

Beware of circular reasoning! Do not state the research problem as simply the absence of the thing you are suggesting. For example, if you propose the following, "The problem in this community is that there is no hospital," this only leads to a research problem where:

• The need is for a hospital
• The objective is to create a hospital
• The method is to plan for building a hospital, and
• The evaluation is to measure if there is a hospital or not.

This is an example of a research problem that fails the "So What?" test . In this example, the problem does not reveal the relevance of why you are investigating the fact there is no hospital in the community [e.g., perhaps there's a hospital in the community ten miles away]; it does not elucidate the significance of why one should study the fact there is no hospital in the community [e.g., that hospital in the community ten miles away has no emergency room]; the research problem does not offer an intellectual pathway towards adding new knowledge or clarifying prior knowledge [e.g., the county in which there is no hospital already conducted a study about the need for a hospital, but it was conducted ten years ago]; and, the problem does not offer meaningful outcomes that lead to recommendations that can be generalized for other situations or that could suggest areas for further research [e.g., the challenges of building a new hospital serves as a case study for other communities].

Alvesson, Mats and Jörgen Sandberg. “Generating Research Questions Through Problematization.” Academy of Management Review 36 (April 2011): 247-271 ; Choosing and Refining Topics. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; D'Souza, Victor S. "Use of Induction and Deduction in Research in Social Sciences: An Illustration." Journal of the Indian Law Institute 24 (1982): 655-661; Ellis, Timothy J. and Yair Levy Nova. "Framework of Problem-Based Research: A Guide for Novice Researchers on the Development of a Research-Worthy Problem." Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline 11 (2008); How to Write a Research Question. The Writing Center. George Mason University; Invention: Developing a Thesis Statement. The Reading/Writing Center. Hunter College; Problem Statements PowerPoint Presentation. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Procter, Margaret. Using Thesis Statements. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Shoket, Mohd. "Research Problem: Identification and Formulation." International Journal of Research 1 (May 2014): 512-518; Trochim, William M.K. Problem Formulation. Research Methods Knowledge Base. 2006; Thesis and Purpose Statements. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Thesis Statements. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Pardede, Parlindungan. “Identifying and Formulating the Research Problem." Research in ELT: Module 4 (October 2018): 1-13; Walk, Kerry. Asking an Analytical Question. [Class handout or worksheet]. Princeton University; White, Patrick. Developing Research Questions: A Guide for Social Scientists . New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2009; Li, Yanmei, and Sumei Zhang. "Identifying the Research Problem." In Applied Research Methods in Urban and Regional Planning . (Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2022), pp. 13-21.

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How to Write a Research Statement

Last Updated: April 25, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 67,342 times.

The research statement is a very common component of job applications in academia. The statement provides a summary of your research experience, interests, and agenda for reviewers to use to assess your candidacy for a position. Because the research statement introduces you as a researcher to the people reviewing your job application, it’s important to make the statement as impressive as possible. After you’ve planned out what you want to say, all you have to do is write your research statement with the right structure, style, and formatting!

Research Statement Outline and Example

Planning Your Research Statement

• For example, some of the major themes of your research might be slavery and race in the 18th century, the efficacy of cancer treatments, or the reproductive cycles of different species of crab.
• You may have several small questions that guide specific aspects of your research. Write all of these questions out, then see if you can formulate a broader question that encapsulates all of these smaller questions.

• For example, if your work is on x-ray technology, describe how your research has filled any knowledge gaps in your field, as well as how it could be applied to x-ray machines in hospitals.
• It’s important to be able to articulate why your research should matter to people who don’t study what you study to generate interest in your research outside your field. This is very helpful when you go to apply for grants for future research.

• Explain why these are the things you want to research next. Do your best to link your prior research to what you hope to study in the future. This will help give your reviewer a deeper sense of what motivates your research and why it matters.

• For example, if your research was historical and the documents you needed to answer your question didn’t exist, describe how you managed to pursue your research agenda using other types of documents.

• Some skills you might be able to highlight include experience working with digital archives, knowledge of a foreign language, or the ability to work collaboratively. When you're describing your skills, use specific, action-oriented words, rather than just personality traits. For example, you might write "speak Spanish" or "handled digital files."
• Don’t be modest about describing your skills. You want your research statement to impress whoever is reading it.

Structuring and Writing the Statement

• Because this section summarizes the rest of your research statement, you may want to write the executive summary after you’ve written the other sections first.
• Write your executive summary so that if the reviewer chooses to only read this section instead of your whole statement, they will still learn everything they need to know about you as an applicant.
• Make sure that you only include factual information that you can prove or demonstrate. Don't embellish or editorialize your experience to make it seem like it's more than it is.

• If you received a postdoctoral fellowship, describe your postdoc research in this section as well.
• If at all possible, include research in this section that goes beyond just your thesis or dissertation. Your application will be much stronger if reviewers see you as a researcher in a more general sense than as just a student.

• Again, as with the section on your graduate research, be sure to include a description of why this research matters and what relevant skills you bring to bear on it.
• If you’re still in graduate school, you can omit this section.

• Be realistic in describing your future research projects. Don’t describe potential projects or interests that are extremely different from your current projects. If all of your research to this point has been on the American civil war, future research projects in microbiology will sound very farfetched.

• For example, add a sentence that says “Dr. Jameson’s work on the study of slavery in colonial Georgia has served as an inspiration for my own work on slavery in South Carolina. I would welcome the opportunity to be able to collaborate with her on future research projects.”

• For example, if your research focuses on the history of Philadelphia, add a sentence to the paragraph on your future research projects that says, “I believe based on my work that I would be a very strong candidate to receive a Balch Fellowship from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.”
• If you’ve received funding for your research in the past, mention this as well.

• Typically, your research statement should be about 1-2 pages long if you're applying for a humanities or social sciences position. For a position in psychology or the hard sciences, your research statement may be 3-4 pages long.
• Although you may think that having a longer research statement makes you seem more impressive, it’s more important that the reviewer actually read the statement. If it seems too long, they may just skip it, which will hurt your application.

Formatting and Editing

• For example, instead of saying, “This part of my research was super hard,” say, “I found this obstacle to be particularly challenging.”

• For example, if your research is primarily in anthropology, refrain from using phrases like “Gini coefficient” or “moiety.” Only use phrases that someone in a different field would probably be familiar with, such as “cultural construct,” “egalitarian,” or “social division.”
• If you have trusted friends or colleagues in fields other than your own, ask them to read your statement for you to make sure you don’t use any words or concepts that they can’t understand.

• For example, when describing your dissertation, say, “I hypothesized that…” When describing your future research projects, say, “I intend to…” or “My aim is to research…”

• At the same time, don’t make your font too big. If you write your research statement in a font larger than 12, you run the risk of appearing unprofessional.

• For instance, if you completed a postdoc, use subheadings in the section on previous research experience to delineate the research you did in graduate school and the research you did during your fellowship.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/graduate_school_applications/writing_a_research_statement.html
• ↑ https://www.cmu.edu/student-success/other-resources/handouts/comm-supp-pdfs/writing-research-statement.pdf
• ↑ https://postdocs.cornell.edu/research-statement
• ↑ https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/pathways-to-success/prepare-for-your-career/take-action/research-statement/
• ↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/executivesummary
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/writingtutorial/style/formal-and-informal-style.shtml
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/editing-and-proofreading-techniques

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Online Guide to Writing and Research

Thinking strategies and writing patterns, explore more of umgc.

• Online Guide to Writing

Patterns for Presenting Information

General-to-Specific Pattern

The general-to-specific pattern is a common pattern in college writing. Although you can use it as an overall essay structure, writers find it most useful when writing introductions. Here are some examples.

Introduce an essay or other, larger work.

Introduce essay examination answers.

Introduce or transition into a discussion of synthesized research.

Introduce a discussion or an analysis.

When using the general-to-specific pattern, as the name suggests, you move from general to specific details. Your opening paragraph should begin with a general statement, then add details that explain it. The details should become increasingly more specific. The pattern ends with a broad statement drawn from your thinking that resulted from the details.

• Example One
• Example Two

Notice how the author of the example below, Gabriel Winant, uses progressions from general to specific to introduce his subject and move his argument forward.

Of all the social policy reforms to emerge from the New Deal, Social Security has proven the most far-reaching and enduring, at least in its direct effects. The program drastically reorganized the normative American life course—in turn leaving a lasting imprint on American politics and resisting challenges decades after its passage. Why did old age in particular prove so amenable to such thoroughgoing social intervention in the 1930s—such that Social Security became the flagship program of the New Deal coalition  (Winant, 2021, p. 75)?

The example above begins with a general statement about the impact of Social Security. Then, the author begins to add details about the nature of that impact, ending the paragraph by asking a question about the one, main feature of Social Security.

In this paragraph, the author presents his thesis, a broad claim drawn from his discussion of Social Security and old age in the previous paragraph. This completes the first progression from specific to general. After the thesis, the author begins a second progression, defining a concept and then providing examples of its application.

…  the elderly emerged into a politically central position in the interwar period because of a contradiction that they came to embody in the category of “dependency,” the key concept in the discourse governing the nexus of market, family, and state. Dependency had emerged during the nineteenth century as the negative face of the work ethic: as Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon observe, the pauper, the native, the slave, and the housewife appeared as its personifications, each subjected to regulatory discipline and subordination—with the housewife the sole “good” dependent. In principle, working-class white men could attain the status of virtuous producer under the sign of the family wage  (Winant, 2021, p. 75).

Although the passages above begin a lengthy article, with a few adjustments they could be used as a conclusion. The author could also use the passage to introduce a book-length treatment of the subject. Because it is so versatile, the general-to-specific pattern is one you will use frequently. 

Key Takeaways

• You will find the general-to-specific pattern useful for writing introductions. 
• However, you can use it for a variety of documents: mission and vision statements, definitions, marketing analyses, reports of scientific investigations, topical literature reviews, feature articles, editorials, and formal arguments.

Mailing Address: 3501 University Blvd. East, Adelphi, MD 20783 This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . © 2022 UMGC. All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.

Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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How to Construct a Compelling Research Statement

A research statement is a critical document for prospective faculty applicants. This document allows applicants to convey to their future colleagues the importance and impact of their past and, most importantly, future research. You as an applicant should use this document to lay out your planned research for the next few years, making sure to outline how your planned research contributes to your field.

Some general guidelines

(from Carleton University )

An effective research statement accomplishes three key goals:

• It clearly presents your scholarship in nonspecialist terms;
• It places your research in a broader context, scientifically and societally; and
• It lays out a clear road map for future accomplishments in the new setting (the institution to which you’re applying).

Another way to think about the success of your research statement is to consider whether, after reading it, a reader is able to answer these questions:

• What do you do (what are your major accomplishments; what techniques do you use; how have you added to your field)?
• Why is your work important (why should both other scientists and nonscientists care)?
• Where is it going in the future (what are the next steps; how will you carry them out in your new job; does your research plan meet the requirements for tenure at this institution)?

1. Make your statement reader-friendly

A typical faculty application call can easily receive 200+ applicants. As such, you need to make all your application documents reader-friendly. Use headings and subheadings to organize your ideas and leave white space between sections.

In addition, you may want to include figures and diagrams in your research statement that capture key findings or concepts so a reader can quickly determine what you are studying and why it is important. A wall of text in your research statement should be avoided at all costs. Rather, a research statement that is concise and thoughtfully laid out demonstrates to hiring committees that you can organize ideas in a coherent and easy-to-understand manner.

Also, this presentation demonstrates your ability to develop competitive funding applications (see more in next section), which is critical for success in a research-intensive faculty position.

2. Be sure to touch on the fundability of your planned research work

Another goal of your research statement is to make the case for why your planned research is fundable. You may get different opinions here, but I would recommend citing open or planned funding opportunities at federal agencies or other funders that you plan to submit to. You might also use open funding calls as a way to demonstrate that your planned research is in an area receiving funding prioritization by various agencies.

If you are looking for funding, check out this list of funding resources on my personal website. Another great way to look for funding is to use NIH Reporter and NSF award search .

3. Draft the statement and get feedback early and often

I can tell you from personal experience that it takes time to refine a strong research statement. I went on the faculty job market two years in a row and found my second year materials to be much stronger. You need time to read, review and reflect on your statements and documents to really make them stand out.

It is important to have your supervisor and other faculty read and give feedback on your critical application documents and especially your research statement. Also, finding peers to provide feedback and in return giving them feedback on their documents is very helpful. Seek out communities of support such as Future PI Slack to find peer reviewers (and get a lot of great application advice) if needed.

4. Share with nonexperts to assess your writing’s clarity

Additionally, you may want to consider sharing your job materials, including your research statement, with non-experts to assess clarity. For example, NC State’s Professional Development Team offers an Academic Packways: Gearing Up for Faculty program each year where you can get feedback on your application documents from individuals working in a variety of areas. You can also ask classmates and colleagues working in different areas to review your research statement. The more feedback you can receive on your materials through formal or informal means, the better.

5. Tailor your statement to the institution

It is critical in your research statement to mention how you will make use of core facilities or resources at the institution you are applying to. If you need particular research infrastructure to do your work and the institution has it, you should mention that in your statement. Something to the effect of: “The presence of the XXX core facility at YYY University will greatly facilitate my lab’s ability to investigate this important process.”

Mentioning core facilities and resources at the target institution shows you have done your research, which is critical in demonstrating your interest in that institution.

Finally, think about the resources available at the institution you are applying to. If you are applying to a primarily undergraduate-serving institution, you will want to be sure you propose a research program that could reasonably take place with undergraduate students, working mostly in the summer and utilizing core facilities that may be limited or require external collaborations.

Undergraduate-serving institutions will value research projects that meaningfully involve students. Proposing overly ambitious research at a primarily undergraduate institution is a recipe for rejection as the institution will read your application as out of touch … that either you didn’t do the work to research them or that you are applying to them as a “backup” to research-intensive positions.

You should carefully think about how to restructure your research statements if you are applying to both primarily undergraduate-serving and research-intensive institutions. For examples of how I framed my research statement for faculty applications at each type of institution, see my personal website ( undergraduate-serving ; research-intensive research statements).

6. Be yourself, not who you think the search committee wants

In the end, a research statement allows you to think critically about where you see your research going in the future. What are you excited about studying based on your previous work? How will you go about answering the unanswered questions in your field? What agencies and initiatives are funding your type of research? If you develop your research statement from these core questions, your passion and commitment to the work will surely shine through.

A closing thought: Be yourself, not who you think the search committee wants. If you try to frame yourself as someone you really aren’t, you are setting the hiring institution and you up for disappointment. You want a university to hire you because they like you, the work you have done, and the work you want to do, not some filtered or idealized version of you.

So, put your true self out there, and realize you want to find the right institutional fit for you and your research. This all takes time and effort. The earlier you start and the more reflection and feedback you get on your research statement and remaining application documents, the better you can present the true you to potential employers.

More Advice on Faculty Job Application Documents on ImPACKful

How to write a better academic cover letter

Tips on writing an effective teaching statement

More Resources

See here for samples of a variety of application materials from UCSF.

• Rules of the (Social Sciences & Humanities) Research Statement
• CMU’s Writing a Research Statement
• UW’s Academic Careers: Research Statements
• Developing a Winning Research Statement (UCSF)
• Academic Packways
• ImPACKful Tips

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• Research Objectives | Definition & Examples

Research Objectives | Definition & Examples

Published on July 12, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on November 20, 2023.

Research objectives describe what your research is trying to achieve and explain why you are pursuing it. They summarize the approach and purpose of your project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement . They should:

• Establish the scope and depth of your project
• Contribute to your research design
• Indicate how your project will contribute to existing knowledge

Table of contents

What is a research objective, why are research objectives important, how to write research aims and objectives, smart research objectives, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research objectives.

Research objectives describe what your research project intends to accomplish. They should guide every step of the research process , including how you collect data , build your argument , and develop your conclusions .

Your research objectives may evolve slightly as your research progresses, but they should always line up with the research carried out and the actual content of your paper.

Research aims

A distinction is often made between research objectives and research aims.

A research aim typically refers to a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear at the end of your problem statement, before your research objectives.

Your research objectives are more specific than your research aim and indicate the particular focus and approach of your project. Though you will only have one research aim, you will likely have several research objectives.

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Research objectives are important because they:

• Establish the scope and depth of your project: This helps you avoid unnecessary research. It also means that your research methods and conclusions can easily be evaluated .
• Contribute to your research design: When you know what your objectives are, you have a clearer idea of what methods are most appropriate for your research.
• Indicate how your project will contribute to extant research: They allow you to display your knowledge of up-to-date research, employ or build on current research methods, and attempt to contribute to recent debates.

Once you’ve established a research problem you want to address, you need to decide how you will address it. This is where your research aim and objectives come in.

Step 1: Decide on a general aim

Your research aim should reflect your research problem and should be relatively broad.

Step 2: Decide on specific objectives

Break down your aim into a limited number of steps that will help you resolve your research problem. What specific aspects of the problem do you want to examine or understand?

Step 3: Formulate your aims and objectives

Once you’ve established your research aim and objectives, you need to explain them clearly and concisely to the reader.

You’ll lay out your aims and objectives at the end of your problem statement, which appears in your introduction. Frame them as clear declarative statements, and use appropriate verbs to accurately characterize the work that you will carry out.

The acronym “SMART” is commonly used in relation to research objectives. It states that your objectives should be:

• Specific: Make sure your objectives aren’t overly vague. Your research needs to be clearly defined in order to get useful results.
• Measurable: Know how you’ll measure whether your objectives have been achieved.
• Achievable: Your objectives may be challenging, but they should be feasible. Make sure that relevant groundwork has been done on your topic or that relevant primary or secondary sources exist. Also ensure that you have access to relevant research facilities (labs, library resources , research databases , etc.).
• Relevant: Make sure that they directly address the research problem you want to work on and that they contribute to the current state of research in your field.
• Time-based: Set clear deadlines for objectives to ensure that the project stays on track.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Research objectives describe what you intend your research project to accomplish.

They summarize the approach and purpose of the project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement .

Your research objectives indicate how you’ll try to address your research problem and should be specific:

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

Scope of research is determined at the beginning of your research process , prior to the data collection stage. Sometimes called “scope of study,” your scope delineates what will and will not be covered in your project. It helps you focus your work and your time, ensuring that you’ll be able to achieve your goals and outcomes.

Defining a scope can be very useful in any research project, from a research proposal to a thesis or dissertation . A scope is needed for all types of research: quantitative , qualitative , and mixed methods .

To define your scope of research, consider the following:

• Budget constraints or any specifics of grant funding
• Your proposed timeline and duration
• Specifics about your population of study, your proposed sample size , and the research methodology you’ll pursue
• Any inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Any anticipated control , extraneous , or confounding variables that could bias your research if not accounted for properly.

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IDPhD  IDPhD

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Completing your Statement of Interdisciplinary Research Interest (SIRI)

A crucial component of your application to the IDPhD Program is the Statement of Interdisciplinary Research Interest (SIRI).

The SIRI should be a maximum of 10 pages , long enough to give the Admissions committee confidence in your ability to carry out your proposed research and should address the interdisciplinary nature and necessity of the proposed research .

The following  IDPhD SIRI guidelines [PDF - 142kb]  may assist you in drafting your SIRI.

The research program proposed in the SIRI must be truly interdisciplinary, drawing significantly on a minimum of two disparate areas of academic endeavour. It must also be the case that the proposed program could not be carried out successfully within the framework of another existing PhD program at Dalhousie. This consideration recognizes that the research activities of modern, “discipline-based” academic units are often multidisciplinary and strongly collaborative—enough to accommodate many interdisciplinary projects. Research programs within the IDPhD at Dalhousie must be uniquely feasible within the framework of that program only.

General Guidelines

General Statement Outlining Research Proposal and its Objectives : What is the essential question that your research is addressing? Why is this worth doing? Why does it require an interdisciplinary approach?

Critical Assessment : Provide a critical assessment of the proposed research from the point of view of each of the contributing disciplines. Include citations of relevant scientific literature.

Interdisciplinarity : Why does this research require an interdisciplinary approach? How do you propose integrating the contributing disciplines to achieve your objectives? Could you achieve your goals through any existing programs at Dalhousie, perhaps as a special stream of interest?

Background : What are you bringing to the research? What are you missing and how do you propose to fill those gaps?

Methodology : What general methodology are you intending to follow for this research? Why? How does this decision reflect the interdisciplinary nature of your research? How will the methodology allow you to integrate disciplinary insights?

Results : How do you anticipate that your research results will add to scientific knowledge? Describe how the new knowledge contributes to the disciplines.

Admissions Committee Considerations             

The Admissions Committee will be looking for a SIRI that answers the following questions:

• Is the research interdisciplinary? Could it be done under only one of Dalhousie's existing graduate programs?
• Do two or more disciplines actively inform your statement of research interest?
• Have you made a strong case for the most relevant disciplines related to your research topic?
• Do you recognize the difference between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches?
• Is there the potential for a more comprehensive understanding than would be gained from a single disciplinary approach to the research question?
• Did you justify the importance of your research question?
• Did you show an understanding of the conceptualization stage of your research?
• Have you considered the relationship between methodology and an interdisciplinary approach?
• Is the research doable? Most students “bite off more than they can chew”. The research should be able to be completed in a reasonable time frame and with reasonable resource commitment.
• Is the research important?

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Search the United Nations

Nuku'alofa, tonga, 27 august 2024, secretary-general's press conference on sea level rise.

Distinguished members of the media,

I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save Our Seas – on rising sea levels.

A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril.

Global average sea levels are rising at rates unprecedented in the past 3,000 years.

The ocean is overflowing.

The changes here in the Pacific region are visible since my last visit.

And around the world, rising seas have unparallelled power to cause havoc to coastal cities and ravage coastal economies.

The reason is clear: greenhouse gases – overwhelmingly generated by burning fossil fuels – are cooking our planet.

And the sea is taking the heat – literally.

It has absorbed more than 90 percent of global heating in the past fifty years.

Water expands as it gets hotter.

And glaciers and ice sheets are melting into the sea – adding to its volume.

In other words – more water is taking up more space.

Two papers released today by the United Nations throw the situation into sharp relief:

The World Meteorological Organization’s report on the State of the Climate in the South West Pacific;

And the UN Climate Action Team’s new report summarizing the science: Surging seas in a warming world.

Taken together, they show that changes to the ocean are accelerating, with devastating impacts.

Month after month, sea temperatures shatter records.

Marine heatwaves are more intense and longer-lasting – doubling its frequency since 1980.

And rising seas are amplifying the frequency and severity of storm surges and coastal flooding.

These floods swamp coastal communities. Ruin fisheries. Damage crops. And contaminate fresh water.

All this puts Pacific Islands in grave danger.

Today’s reports confirm that relative sea levels in the Southwestern Pacific have risen even more than the global average – in some locations, by more than double the global increase in the past thirty years.

Ocean temperatures are increasing at up to three times the rate worldwide.

And Pacific islands are uniquely exposed.

This is a region with an average elevation just one to two meters above sea level;

Where around 90 percent of people live within 5 kilometers of the coast;

And where half the infrastructure is within 500 metres of the sea.

Without drastic cuts in emissions, the Pacific Islands can expect at least 15 centimeters of additional sea level rise by mid-century, and more than 30 days per year of coastal flooding in some places.

Today’s reports show that the average rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since the 1990s.

But a doubling in speed shows that the phenomenon is accelerating in an unusual and uncontrolled way.

Global-mean sea level has already risen over 10cm since 1993. It is as I said worse in the Pacific, with some locations exceeding 15cm.

Emerging science suggests that a two-degree temperature rise could potentially lead to the loss of almost all the Greenland ice sheet, and much of the West Antarctica ice sheet.

This would mean condemning future generations to unstoppable sea level rise up to 20 meters – over a period of millennia.

But at three degrees of warming – our current trajectory – the rise in sea level would happen much more quickly – over centuries.

That spells disaster: wide-ranging and brutal impacts, coming far thicker and faster than we can adapt to them – destroying entire coastal communities.

Can you imagine the impact on this beautiful capital city of Nuku’alofa?

But what happens in Tonga did not start in Tonga, and it doesn’t end here.

Surging seas are coming for us all – together with the devastation of fishing, tourism, and the Blue Economy.

Across the world, around a billion people live in coastal areas, from low-lying islands to megacities; from tropical agricultural deltas to Arctic communities.

Coastal megacities including Dhaka, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Lagos and Shanghai are threatened by our swelling ocean.

Rising seas will increase the frequency of extreme events like coastal floods.

If global temperatures rise by 2.5 degrees, that frequency could increase from once in 100 years to once in five years by the end of this century.

Without new adaptation and protection measures, economic damage from coastal flooding could amount to trillions of dollars.

Around 1 meter of future sea level rise is already locked in. But its future scale, pace, and impact are not.

That depends on decisions we take now.

Global leaders must step up:

To drastically slash global emissions;

To lead a fast and fair phase-out of fossil fuels;

And to massively boost climate adaptation investments, to protect people from present and future risks.

Only by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius do we have a fighting chance of preventing the irreversible collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets – and the catastrophes that accompany them.

That means cutting global emissions by 43 percent compared to 2019 levels by 2030, and 60 percent by 2035.

We need governments to honour the promise made at COP28 – and deliver new national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – by next year.

And these must be aligned with the 1.5 degree limit, and cover all emissions and the whole economy.

They must put the world on track to phase out fossil fuels fast and fairly – including ending new coal projects and new oil and gas expansion now.

And they must keep the promises made at COP28 to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency and end deforestation by 2030.

The G20 – the biggest emitters, with the greatest capacity and responsibility to lead – must be out in front.

And the world must massively increase finance and support for vulnerable countries.

We need a surge in funds to deal with the surging seas.

At COP29, countries must agree to boost innovative financing and a strong new finance goal.

And developed countries must deliver on their finance commitments – including the commitment to double adaptation funding to at least $40 billion a year by 2025.

And we need significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund as a step towards climate justice – in support of vulnerable countries like the Pacific Islands: And the same applies to the Pacific initiatives that were announced once again during this Summit of the Pacific funds to protect the Pacific Islands.

Finally, we need to protect every person on Earth with an early warning system by 2027.

That means building up countries’ data capacities to improve decision-making on adaptation and coastal planning.

Dear members of the media,

The world must look to the Pacific and listen to science.

This is a crazy situation:

Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making.

A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety.

But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves.

The world must act, and answer the SOS before it is too late.

And I thank you.

Question : How frustrated are you by the lack of action from G20 and other developed nations, particularly as they continue to expand oil and gas production?

Secretary-General : I'm extremely concerned. G20 countries represent 80% of emissions, and it is obvious that without a drastic reduction of emissions of all of them, we will not be able to keep the 1.5 degree, and we might risk even to go over the two degrees, which will be absolutely devastating. And there is a dialogue that we need to dismount. Sometimes developed countries say, well we have already done a programme to reduce our emissions, so it's emerging economies that now will do the same. And emerging economies say, but you have polluted during decades, and now we also need some margin in relation to the development of our country. And if we count by consumption instead of by production, then the emissions in developed countries are much higher. This kind of dialogue leads nowhere. We cannot go on blaming each other. We absolutely need all G20 countries to come together, to use the best technologies available within the G20 to use the financial resources that exist within the G20 and in multilateral development institutions, and to have a concerted global action to have a drastic reduction of emissions in until 2030; if that does not happen, we will be in an irreversible situation with absolutely devastating consequences.

Question : In a similar way, Secretary-General, you called for a fast phase out of fossil fuels. Is it fair or acceptable for a country like Australia to continue to improve new coal and gas projects?

Secretary-General : Well, what we say is that we need to have a phase out of fossil fuels that is done through a just transition, and that means that fossil fuels need to be phased out, that I believe is today scientific evidence. But obviously the situation in different countries is different, and the justice in the way this is done means that there are different reasons and there are different ways to do it, but let's have no illusion: without phase out of fossil fuels in a fair and just way, there is no way we can keep the 1.5 degrees alive.

Question : Are you hoping to have leaders agree to a sea level rise declaration by the end of the week, and for it to be presented at the UNGA later next month? Do you think PIF and the General Assembly should support the declaration? And also, how are your plans for a pledging conference on climate change and how's it coming about? I understand your target is $500 million.

Secretary-General : I have a lot of confidence in the determination of Pacific Islands to speak loud and clear in the next General Assembly. We have seen that with sea level rise, the impact is particularly dramatic in Pacific Islands. And Pacific Islands do not contribute to Climate Change, so they have a moral authority to ask those that are creating this in accelerating the sea level rise to reverse these trends. And we count on the leadership of Pacific Islands and will be fully supportive of their declaration.

Question : I just have a question, because you see the building so climate change here in Tonga, are we seeing any technical or financial assistance soon from the office?

Secretary-General : I am totally committed to mobilize the new capacity that the UN has in the Pacific, to support Tonga, and to support all islands of the Pacific. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see the inauguration of a meteorological radar that is part of the first line of protection, and it's financed by, essentially by New Zealand. And Tonga will be equipped from now on to have an effective early warning system. So, we are very much willing to cooperate with the Government of Tonga to strengthen their capacity.

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