Step 1: Develop your idea

Think about your interests and strengths

Ideas for research topics frequently stem from personal experiences or threads that run through a person's professional life. Don't discount your own experiences or flashes of inspiration. Personal reflection often leads to significant breakthroughs.

Network

Ideas are frequently generated from conversations that arise through chance and serendipity. It's important to seize opportunities to:

• Talk to colleagues
• Present at conferences
• Review papers
• Sit on panels & advisory councils
• Contact national/international figures in your areas of interest
• Look outside your own institution

Considering what others want and might want to fund may not be the same as generating a radical new idea but it's a good start. You can take an entrepreneurial approach to your research and work with a private company that will supply the imaginative leap. You can also read through calls from a variety of funders to develop a creative spark.

Pick up where others left off

A novel research idea still needs to be connected to current knowledge and preferably to recent findings in your research field. It is important to clearly describe how your proposed research will lead the closing (or minimizing) a well-defined knowledge gap.
To say a study is finished is misleading. Findings published in journal articles are not always as tidy as presented and this provides an opportunity to generate new ideas based on an existing one. Whenever you read, evaluate, or listen, ask yourself:

• From where did he/she draw the ideas?
• What was accomplished?
• How does it relate to other work?
• What would be a reasonable next step to build upon?
• What ideas could be brought in to expand upon the topic?

The initial idea is sometimes quite far from the final topic. If you remain open and flexible, it will usually be much easier to generate alternative topics. It's important to seek input and feedback on your idea before investing too much time into your application.