Research Statement Examples

4 Tips for a Strong Research Statement

1. Open with the question, not the chronology

Start with the problem your work addresses and why it matters, in a sentence or two a colleague outside your subfield could understand. Then say what you have contributed to it. A committee should know your research identity before the end of the first paragraph.

2. Cover past, present and future

Most strong statements move from the dissertation to current work to a research plan for the next several years. The future section carries the most weight in a faculty search. Name two or three specific projects, with methods, likely outputs and, in fields that expect it, the grants you would apply for.

3. Write for the whole committee

Search committees include people from across the department, and sometimes a dean. Keep jargon to what you need, define terms the first time, and use one clear example instead of a list of every paper. Specialists will read your publications. The statement has to persuade everyone else.

4. Fit the research to the institution

At a research university, show a funded, independent program. At a teaching-focused college, show how undergraduates can take part and what you can do with the resources there. Follow the length in the job ad. Without one, one to three pages is typical for faculty searches.

6 Research Statement Examples

Here are six example research statements: four for faculty jobs, one for a postdoc and one statement of research interests for a PhD application. Each is followed by a short note on what it does well. Real faculty statements are often two or three pages, so these are condensed.

We wrote these six ourselves as teaching models. The applicants are invented, journals and schools are left as bracketed placeholders, and nothing here is a real client's statement.

Example 1 (Computer science, research university): Privacy in health apps

Millions of people track their health with phone apps, and most of those apps share data in ways their users would not agree to if they understood them. My research asks how we can measure that sharing at scale and give people controls that actually work.

Past work. My dissertation built an automated tool that installs Android health apps, uses them the way a real person would, and records every piece of data that leaves the phone. Applied to 2,100 apps, it found that 38 percent sent health data to advertising companies, often against their own privacy policies. The paper appeared at [Conference], and the tool is now used by two consumer protection agencies.

Current work. With collaborators in public health, I am studying how people decide which apps to trust. In a study with 640 participants, privacy labels in app stores changed choices only when they were shown at the moment of download.

Future research. Over the next five years I will pursue two projects. The first extends my measurement tool to wearables and smart home devices, where data flows are harder to observe. The second designs and tests consent tools for apps used in clinical trials, with partners at [Medical Center]. I plan to apply for an NSF CAREER award and for NIH funding through the second project, and I expect both to support PhD students and undergraduate researchers.

What works here:

• The first paragraph states the problem and the research question in plain language.
• The dissertation result is concrete (2,100 apps, 38 percent) and shows impact beyond academia.
• Bold labels for past, current and future work make a long statement easy to scan.
• The future section names two projects, a partner and specific funding sources, which a research university expects.
• Students are mentioned as part of the plan, which connects research to the department's needs.

Example 2 (History, teaching-focused college): Courts and family life

I study how ordinary people used the courts to settle family conflicts in the early American republic. Divorce, custody and inheritance cases show what people thought a family owed its members, and they record the voices of women and children who rarely appear in other sources.

My book manuscript, based on my dissertation, examines more than 900 county court cases from Virginia and North Carolina between 1790 and 1840. I argue that local courts were more willing than state law to recognize married women's claims to property, because judges and juries knew the families involved. Two chapters have appeared as articles in [Journal] and [Journal], and the manuscript is under review at [Press].

My next project follows children who were bound out as apprentices by county courts, often because their families were poor. I have identified about 3,000 indenture records in three counties, and I plan to build a public database that links them to census and court records.

This project is well suited to undergraduate research. At my current institution, four students have helped transcribe indentures, and one presented her findings at a regional history conference. At [College], I would build the database with students in my methods seminar, using the county records held in the college's own archive.

What works here:

• The opening explains why court records matter, so a non-historian on the committee sees the stakes.
• The book's sources and argument fit in two sentences, with a clear publication status.
• The next project is concrete: a type of record, a count and a plan for a public database.
• The statement shows how students would take part, which is what a teaching-focused college wants to know.
• Using the college's own archive makes the plan feel ready to start.

Example 3 (Biology, research university): A lab plan for a new faculty member

Coral reefs are bleaching more often as oceans warm, but some corals recover and others die. My lab will study why, focusing on the microbes that live inside coral tissue and help corals survive heat.

As a PhD student at [University], I showed that corals hosting a particular group of symbiotic algae recovered from bleaching twice as fast in the field. As a postdoc at [Institute], I found that bacteria living alongside those algae produce compounds that protect them from heat damage. This work has produced five first-author papers, including one in [Journal].

My lab will pursue three aims. Aim 1 will identify which bacterial genes are active during heat stress, using RNA sequencing of corals from reefs that differ in temperature history. Aim 2 will test whether adding protective bacteria to corals improves recovery in tank experiments. Aim 3 will work with reef managers in [Region] to test the most promising treatments on small coral nurseries.

Aims 1 and 2 are the basis of an NSF proposal I submitted this fall. The work needs a running seawater system, which [University]'s marine station already has, and it offers clear projects for graduate students and undergraduates.

What works here:

• The first sentence names an urgent problem that any committee member can follow.
• Past results are summarized briefly, with numbers and publications that show productivity.
• Organizing the plan into three aims is standard in the sciences and easy to evaluate.
• The statement moves from basic research to application, which strengthens the case for funding.
• It names a submitted proposal and a specific facility at the hiring university.

Example 4 (Sociology, regional public university): Community-engaged research

My research examines how families in rural communities find child care when there isn't enough of it. In much of [State], licensed care has fewer slots than there are young children, and parents fill the gap with relatives, neighbors and unlicensed providers. Policy debates mostly ignore that informal system.

For my dissertation, I interviewed 58 parents and 21 home-based providers in four rural counties. I found that informal arrangements were flexible but fragile. Most broke down within a year, usually because a provider took a better paying job or a relative moved away. An article on these findings is forthcoming in [Journal], and I presented them to the state's early childhood advisory council.

My next project will survey parents across the state's rural counties, in partnership with the [State] Child Care Resource Network, to estimate how many children rely on informal care and how often those arrangements end. The survey will give state agencies numbers they currently do not have, and it will support two articles and a policy report.

At [University], with its mission to serve the region, I would involve students in interviewing and survey work and share results with the county offices that need them.

What works here:

• The opening defines the problem and points to a gap in existing policy debates.
• Dissertation methods are stated in numbers (58 parents, 21 providers, four counties) with a clear finding.
• Presenting to a state council shows the research already reaches decision makers.
• The next project has a named partner and practical outputs, which suits a regional public university.
• The closing ties the plan to the university's regional mission.

Example 5 (Postdoc, linguistics): A two-year research plan

I study how children who grow up speaking two languages learn words for emotions, and why they sometimes use those words differently in each language. During this postdoc I will extend that work from preschoolers to school-age children.

My dissertation tested 120 Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers with a picture-matching task. Children knew emotion words in both languages, but they used them in different situations, more often choosing Spanish words to describe family scenes. I want to know whether that pattern grows or fades once children start school in English.

In the first year, I will adapt my task for children ages six to ten and pilot it with 40 children through [Lab]'s partnership with local schools. In the second year, I will run the full study with 200 children and analyze how classroom language and home language each predict word use. I expect to submit two papers and to have pilot data for a grant application by the end of the position.

[Mentor Name]'s lab is the right place for this, because its school partnerships and its work on language and social development are exactly what the project needs.

What works here:

• It is short and focused on what the applicant will do during the postdoc.
• The dissertation finding leads directly to the new question.
• A year-by-year plan with sample sizes shows the work is realistic in two years.
• Expected outputs (papers and grant data) show the applicant is preparing for an independent career.
• The fit with the mentor's lab is specific.

Example 6 (PhD application, environmental engineering): A statement of research interests

I want to study how to remove microplastics from drinking water in small communities that can't afford advanced treatment plants.

I came to this question through my job at a regional water utility, where I have worked for two years as a lab technician. Part of my work is testing water from small systems that serve a few hundred households each. When our lab began a pilot study of microplastics, we found them in every sample, and the small systems had no practical way to reduce them.

As an undergraduate, I worked in [Professor Name]'s lab testing sand filters for removing bacteria, and I am curious whether similar low-cost filters could be designed to capture plastic particles. In graduate school I would like to study how filter materials and flow rates affect microplastic removal, and how well those filters hold up over time in real systems.

[Professor Name]'s work on low-cost treatment for rural water systems is the main reason I am applying to [University]. I would be glad to contribute my field sampling experience to the lab's projects.

What works here:

• A PhD applicant is not expected to have a full research program, and this statement doesn't pretend to.
• The opening states a clear research interest in one sentence.
• Work experience explains where the question came from and shows practical skills.
• Undergraduate research is connected to the proposed topic.
• The statement names a specific faculty member and the reason for the fit.