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RESEARCH SERVICES POLICIES AND GUIDELINES 35

h. Discipline

By discipline, it refers to the specific field to be studied e.g., social science, education,
plant breeding, taxonomy, communicable or degenerative diseases, drug formulation,
maternal or child health, process, food and feed, metals and engineering, etc.

i. Significance of the Project

Significance of the project refers to the statement of the problem which should
be discussed by giving information on what exactly is the problem, how long it has
become a problem, the situation how the problem was encountered and the negative
consequences of the problem if not acted upon.

Previous works or reviews relevant to the problem may also be cited in the significance
of the project. If this is the case, the significance of the project should also include what
the research is all about and what is its role in relation to other works and show how the
research activity will extend over or supersede the results of earlier researches.

In most technical researches, the significance of the project tells something about the
context of the project, that is, how the research project forms part of the overall body of
knowledge in the discipline, sector or commodity.

In many development-oriented research projects, the significance of the project should
also include the justification of the research expenditures vis-à-vis potential benefits
to be derived, utilization of the expected results, outcomes or outputs, impact of the
information or technology to be generated on the current body of knowledge and the
target users/beneficiaries or stakeholders at the institutional, municipal, provincial,
regional and national, if not global levels.

For R&D projects aligned with the mandates of DOST-PCARRD most particularly along
the NSTA 2020, the DOST 8-Point Agenda, the Integrated S&T Agenda for the AFNR,
and the NHERA of CHED, the research outputs should be explicitly stated and discussed
specifically on how they will be utilized and disseminated.

j. Project Objectives

The project objectives state what the research project was expected to achieve and
why it was to be undertaken. Many proponents suggest that the articulation of the
objectives should use the SMART guide. By SMART, we refer to the proposed objectives
to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound.

Where the research project have many related studies all of which lead to a common
goal, it is preferable to have a general objective which is a statement of the general
purpose of the research. The specific objectives are crafted from the general objective
to address the problem areas as stated in the significance of the project.

The project objectives should be clear enough as to what the proposal intends to

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