Preparing your research proposal
Defining your research topic
Very early in your Master’s or Doctoral program, you will lay the groundwork, in collaboration with your supervisor, on how to approach your object of study and plan your work to achieve your program objectives within a realistic timeline. A few steps need to be taken before you can begin your actual research.
Building your research project
Your research topic is a brief description of your object of study and must be approved by your program director. You will have exclusive rights to this topic for the normal duration of your program, and any subsequent changes to it will require further approval from the program director.
The next step is to define and develop your research project in a document that outlines the main aspects of your proposed research:
- Purpose
- Objectives
- Methodology, etc.
Each program has its own specific rules and procedures for presenting research topics and proposals. Contact your program director for details.
Developing a collaboration plan
The supervision of a student enrolled in a research Master's or Doctoral program provides for the use of the collaboration plan to ensure that the student progresses according to the timeline established.
The collaboration plan is a document detailing the work agreement established between you and your supervisor at the beginning of your Master’s or Doctoral program.
See why AELIÉS supports the collaboration plan (in French only).
Obtaining ethical approval for your project
Once your supervisory committee feels your project is sufficiently precise, you’ll need to fill out the Student’s Declaration form and submit it to your program director. All students must fill out the Student Declaration form.
Student’s declaration (PDF) - Available in French only
If your research project doesn’t involve human subjects and remains the same through to your final submission, you won’t need to do anything else for the ethics committee.
If your research proposal involves human subjects, your supervisory committee will be able to determine whether you need to file an application for approval or whether your project can be exempted.
As applicable:
- See the procedure for filing an application for ethical approval. (in French only)
- Check the steps required to apply for an exemption if your project does not require ethical approval. (in French only)
If the title or content of your research project changes partway through, you will need to inform CÉRUL. Changes may require you to apply for approval again.
Change requests can be made at any time, regardless of submission dates, and are generally processed within days of receipt.
See the documents required and the time it takes to process a change request. (in French only)
CÉRUL approval is valid for one year. If at the end of one year you haven’t finished collecting your data or running your experiment with human subjects, you’ll need to request that your approval be renewed. You need to do this in writing at least 30 days before the approval expires.
See how to apply for renewal of ethics approval. (in French only)
If you are already in the process of analyzing your data, you don’t need to renew the ethics approval.
In the event of a discrepancy between the French and English texts, the French version prevails.