Project Proposal and Ethics Approval

Your assessment will be based around the brief specified by your chosen company. From your chosen company brief, you need to develop, propose and plan your Individual Management Project.

There are two activities which make up the assessment for Task 1 as follows:-

A Project Proposal
Your proposal should cover the following sections:
Please note that the word counts for each section are included for guidance only.
Introduction (100-150 words)
A short statement about the problem/ areas you need to address/ research, using the information provided by your chosen company or your own enterprise residency project, and the sections you will cover in the proposal.
Rationale and background (150-200words)
Detailed statement about the problem/ areas your project will address and how you are going to approach it and why you have chosen it, justifying its importance from the literature.
Some detailed background from the literature about your topic.
Research question (s) and/or Aim(s) (20-25 words)
Think of the aims and objectives you will cover as part of your project. Use the information provided by the company or relating to your enterprise residency project.
Objectives (20-25 words)
Identify a number of objectives from the project brief which should be in line with your questions and/or aims.

Short review of key literature relevant to your topic (250-300 words)
Discuss 3 or 4 relevant themes which will help you with your project.
Research Methods (200-250 words)
This should include the type of research e.g. quantitative, data collection method(s) and how you are planning to analyse the data. You need to explain/ justify your choices from the research methods’ literature, using the references from the research methods’ literature (you can use, for instance, references we have suggested on lecture/ seminar slides and relevant chapters from your key texts in Business Research at Level 5. Materials from Level 5 is available from the Assessment Support Folder).
Ethics (15-20 words)
Explain how you will ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the data and how you are going to store it safely as well as how long you might store it (normally 1 to 2 years).
Conclusion (100-150 words).
A couple of lines to say why you think your planned research will address the problem/ areas you stated in your introduction. This does not require literature references.
Appendices (not included in the word count)
1- A project plan -This should include key activities and milestones for your research project (see examples and refer back to your Level 5 project plan and associated feedback)
2- A contingency plan- This should include any potential issues which might affect the progress of your research and how you would mitigate these (see examples and refer back to your Level 5 project plan and associated feedback).

These are just suggestions. You could organise your work differently as long as all the elements are included and you do not go over the 1,000 word limit +/- 10%. You should also refer back to your Business Research Proposal assignment at Level 5 and associated feedback to assist you in completing this new proposal.

B: Ethics Approval Proforma

In addition to your outline proposal you are required to complete and submit a UREC Research Ethics Proforma with the details of your project. Copies of the University’s UREC forms are located in the Assessment section of the Blackboard site. You should cut and paste relevant sections of your proposal in your UREC 2.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While there are no marks awarded for submitting the completed UREC ProForma, 10% of your overall Task 1 mark will be deducted if you do not submit this completed document.

Submission Guidance:

Word Count
For this task the word count applies to A only. All text apart from tables, charts, appendices, and bibliography is included in the word count.

Referencing
Your work should use relevant academic theory and be supported by academic referencing.
University uses APA 7 referencing style in order to extend the choice of online tools and apps you can use to make referencing easier. Find out about APA referencing and the range of apps and online tools for quick and easier referencing at:

Presentation & Formatting
• Use Calibri or Arial font size 11 and 1.5 line spacing
• Include page numbers at the bottom of each page
• Your cover page should include the following information:
o Your name and student ID
o Module name
o Assessment Task Title
o Details of any learning contract requirements
o Word count

Submitting your work
You should submit your work online via the Blackboard submission point by 3pm on the hand in date.

Turnitin submission
This is required for A only.
You will need to upload the final version of your work to the Turnitin submission point by on the hand in date.
You are advised to use Turnitin to ensure there are no unintentional plagiarism issues with your work by uploading a draft version before submitting the final one.