research statement for faculty position computer science

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Research statements for faculty job applications

The purpose of a research statement.

The main goal of a research statement is to walk the search committee through the evolution of your research, to highlight your research accomplishments, and to show where your research will be taking you next. To a certain extent, the next steps that you identify within your statement will also need to touch on how your research could benefit the institution to which you are applying. This might be in terms of grant money, faculty collaborations, involving students in your research, or developing new courses. Your CV will usually show a search committee where you have done your research, who your mentors have been, the titles of your various research projects, a list of your papers, and it may provide a very brief summary of what some of this research involves. However, there can be certain points of interest that a CV may not always address in enough detail.

• What got you interested in this research?
• What was the burning question that you set out to answer?
• What challenges did you encounter along the way, and how did you overcome these challenges?
• How can your research be applied?
• Why is your research important within your field?
• What direction will your research take you in next, and what new questions do you have?

While you may not have a good sense of where your research will ultimately lead you, you should have a sense of some of the possible destinations along the way. You want to be able to show a search committee that your research is moving forward and that you are moving forward along with it in terms of developing new skills and knowledge. Ultimately, your research statement should complement your cover letter, CV, and teaching philosophy to illustrate what makes you an ideal candidate for the job. The more clearly you can articulate the path your research has taken, and where it will take you in the future, the more convincing and interesting it will be to read.

Separate research statements are usually requested from researchers in engineering, social, physical, and life sciences, but can also be requested for researchers in the humanities. In many cases, however, the same information that is covered in the research statement is often integrated into the cover letter for many disciplines within the humanities and no separate research statement is requested within the job advertisement. Seek advice from current faculty and new hires about the conventions of your discipline if you are in doubt.

Timeline: Getting Started with your Research Statement

You can think of a research statement as having three distinct parts. The first part will focus on your past research, and can include the reasons you started your research, an explanation as to why the questions you originally asked are important in your field, and a summary some of the work you did to answer some of these early questions.

The middle part of the research statement focuses on your current research. How is this research different from previous work you have done, and what brought you to where you are today? You should still explain the questions you are trying to ask, and it is very important that you focus on some of the findings that you have (and cite some of the publications associated with these findings). In other words, do not talk about your research in abstract terms, make sure that you explain your actual results and findings (even if these may not be entirely complete when you are applying for faculty positions), and mention why these results are significant.

The final part of your research statement should build on the first two parts. Yes, you have asked good questions, and used good methods to find some answers, but how will you now use this foundation to take you into your future? Since you are hoping that your future will be at one of the institutions to which you are applying, you should provide some convincing reasons why your future research will be possible at each institution, and why it will be beneficial to that institution, or to the students at that institution.

While you are focusing on the past, present, and future or your research, and tailoring it to each institution, you should also think about the length of your statement and how detailed or specific you make the descriptions of your research. Think about who will be reading it. Will they all understand the jargon you are using? Are they experts in the subject, or experts in a range of related subjects? Can you go into very specific detail, or do you need to talk about your research in broader terms that make sense to people outside of your research field focusing on the common ground that might exist? Additionally, you should make sure that your future research plans differ from those of your PI or advisor, as you need to be seen as an independent researcher. Identify 4-5 specific aims that can be divided into short-term and long-term goals. You can give some idea of a 5-year research plan that includes the studies you want to perform, but also mention your long-term plans, so that the search committee knows that this is not a finite project.

Another important consideration when writing about your research is realizing that you do not perform research in a vacuum. When doing your research you may have worked within a team environment at some point, or sought out specific collaborations. You may have faced some serious challenges that required some creative problem-solving to overcome. While these aspects are not necessarily as important as your results and your papers or patents, they can help paint a picture of you as a well-rounded researcher who is likely to be successful in the future even if new problems arise, for example.

Follow these general steps to begin developing an effective research statement:

Step 1: Think about how and why you got started with your research. What motivated you to spend so much time on answering the questions you developed? If you can illustrate some of the enthusiasm you have for your subject, the search committee will likely assume that students and other faculty members will see this in you as well. People like to work with passionate and enthusiastic colleagues. Remember to focus on what you found, what questions you answered, and why your findings are significant. The research you completed in the past will have brought you to where you are today; also be sure to show how your research past and research present are connected. Explore some of the techniques and approaches you have successfully used in your research, and describe some of the challenges you overcame. What makes people interested in what you do, and how have you used your research as a tool for teaching or mentoring students? Integrating students into your research may be an important part of your future research at your target institutions. Conclude describing your current research by focusing on your findings, their importance, and what new questions they generate.

Step 2: Think about how you can tailor your research statement for each application. Familiarize yourself with the faculty at each institution, and explore the research that they have been performing. You should think about your future research in terms of the students at the institution. What opportunities can you imagine that would allow students to get involved in what you do to serve as a tool for teaching and training them, and to get them excited about your subject? Do not talk about your desire to work with graduate students if the institution only has undergraduates! You will also need to think about what equipment or resources that you might need to do your future research. Again, mention any resources that specific institutions have that you would be interested in utilizing (e.g., print materials, super electron microscopes, archived artwork). You can also mention what you hope to do with your current and future research in terms of publication (whether in journals or as a book), try to be as specific and honest as possible. Finally, be prepared to talk about how your future research can help bring in grants and other sources of funding, especially if you have a good track record of receiving awards and fellowships. Mention some grants that you know have been awarded to similar research, and state your intention to seek this type of funding.

Step 3: Ask faculty in your department if they are willing to share their own research statements with you. To a certain extent, there will be some subject-specific differences in what is expected from a research statement, and so it is always a good idea to see how others in your field have done it. You should try to draft your own research statement first before you review any statements shared with you. Your goal is to create a unique research statement that clearly highlights your abilities as a researcher.

Step 4: The research statement is typically a few (2-3) pages in length, depending on the number of images, illustrations, or graphs included.  Once you have completed the steps above, schedule an appointment with a career advisor to get feedback on your draft. You should also try to get faculty in your department to review your document if they are willing to do so.

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Research plan for a first-time faculty application

I'm in my 3rd year of postdocs and started to apply for Lecturer positions in Computer Science the UK (the entry level permanent faculty positions). As part of my interview process, I am required to give a 15 minute presentation about my current research and my three year research plan, and am looking for some advice on how to do the latter. The focus of the research plan presentation is not only on the ideas you propose, but in major part about how you plan to obtain funding for it and how many research staff you can bring in from that funding to support your research.

I've looked through some other questions regarding UK faculty applications , research plan writing and content , which offer some good advice. However, I am looking for advice specifically targeting early-career researchers applying for their first faculty position .

The two specific aspects I am concerned about is the transition from postdoctoral positions where shorter-term career plans are the norm, as well as my relative inexperience with grant writing (I've recently been included in the late stages of grant writing by my advisor, but that's it).

Of course I am not planning to take the answers I get here my only source of information; I have an advisor happy to discuss this with me and give me specific tips, and have been looking up information about funding for new faculty members online as well as through chatting with fresh hires in my department (with some hinting they rely on the informal support and sharing of more junior research staff from within their team while applying for initial external funding).

So, considering that I've never held a faculty position, have limited experience with grant applications (but an understanding that it is an acquired skill as well as very competitive and thus uncertain), never independently proposed a research project (tho I am always active in proposing and typically independent in choosing which approaches I want to apply to problems), and never formally worked with a PhD or a postdoctoral researcher for full the duration of a project, the questions I have are:

How "confidently" am I supposed to write the research plan? Should I write it assuming I will have a student / research postdoc available to work with, or should I also present a plan for the situation where I do not have "my own staff" for a while?

One major consideration is that UK faculty typically has about 40% of their time dedicated to research (rest is teaching and admin), as opposed to research staff (PhD students and postdocs) with 90+% of their time dedicated to research. Therefore the amount of research that one realistically can conduct would depend substantially on how much funding one manages to secure.

How many backup grant options do I need to include? I understand there is some grant options specifically targeting fresh faculty in the UK, so should I demonstrate that I plan to ask the appropriate parties for funding, or also try to cover the case of no applications being successful?

To summarize: I am concerned and would like advice about the level of confidence in the tone of a 3-year research plan for a fresh faculty member.

I worry that, on the one hand, including many backup options could be seen as "setting myself up to fail", while, on the other hand, too confident a tone would make me come across as somebody not understanding the competitiveness and difficulties in obtaining funding due to my lack of experience.

The level of detail is clear from the format: it's a 15 minute presentation with some time for questions, so I won't have time to talk in much detail, but I might be asked to elaborate on any aspect of it. All in all, I am a fair deal nervous, and I'm not even sure I'm asking the right questions here; any advice from the perspective of applying for a first-time faculty position would be great.

• research-process
• computer-science
• faculty-application
• united-kingdom

2 Answers 2

I see from comments that the interview is past, but here's still some thoughts on this that might be useful for someone else.

I would say that your results at a 3-years horizon don't depend that much on funding prospects, mainly because you're not starting with those funds from day 1, and as a new lecturer you're certainly not expected to have an army of postdocs working for you in the first couple of years.

You might spend a few months writing the grant proposal, then the process will take some more months, and then from decision to start date there's more time... so assuming success you might be able to hire someone to start in a year at best, more realistically two. Then would you start immediately with postdocs? Unless you're one of several investigators in a larger project, that doesn't sound realistic. Rather you'll probably be supervising MSc projects, and you might hope for one or two PhD students to start within those three years, and with any luck get their first paper or two. I think what you need to pitch is a set of ideas that could form a grant proposal and some realistic-sounding MSc and PhD topics.

The bottom line is that you're being asked for a 3-year plan to see whether you can actually prepare a plan that involves medium- to long-term goals, rather than just think of the next development of what you're doing at the moment.

My situation was a bit different as I went directly from my mathematics PhD to a faculty position (in the US). But when I finished the doctorate I had a file drawer full of speculative ideas and ideas left unexplored from the work on the dissertation. If you have such a thing, or could create it, you should 'mine' it for ideas that are yet to be explored. These should be easy for you to discuss since you already touched on them in your past, though if you haven't already recorded them you have some work to do. For such work you can probably speak with confidence.

Fifteen minutes isn't very long, so you don't need a lot of material. But you might think about the fact that since you will also be teaching, research that students could potentially participate in could be especially valued. Also, you have likely gained insight into a wide range of ideas that are at least peripherally related to your current research. That wide range opens doors to a moderately broad "area" of research that increases your likelihood of success in exploring at least some of the ideas. While research is necessarily narrow for a given idea, there are related areas, most likely, that increase your range and hence your desirability as a colleague.

Sorry that I can't speak much about UK funding, but in general, "interesting" ideas are also interesting to funders. Likewise, appearing to a funder as someone with a lot of ideas (and therefore potential) is also an advantage.

• Thank you for your answer. My interview was a week ago at this point, so waiting for the response atm. The "idea drawer" sounds very interesting, and something I will try to implement from now on. However, the focus of the (research) presentation in the UK is in a big part on obtaining funding so your answer covers just half of my question. I was more interested in how to go about presenting the uncertainty with funding applications - about half of what I said regarding each research proposal was about the idea itself, the rest was about getting it funded and making (industrial, social) impact –  penelope Nov 7, 2018 at 13:59
• Also, just for extra context, while the main part of the interview follows and is with the same panel as the presentation of the research plan, there is in fact a separate teaching presentation before of a different panel. Since the bulk of the interview follows the research plan presentation, they were also asking some questions about teaching, but that aspect is mostly covered in front of a different panel. –  penelope Nov 7, 2018 at 14:05
• I think, when I wrote the question, I was interested mostly in how funded I should assume I will be during the time I am presenting the research plan for. You only get about 40% of your time allocated to research as faculty in the UK. So, the actual goal of the presentation was to say stuff like: "for research idea A, I will aim to fund it from the agency B, which will allow me to hire a postdoctoral researcher for X years to work on A". Consequently, the research plan takes a much different shape depending on how much funding you (assume) you are going to obtain. –  penelope Nov 7, 2018 at 14:25
• Also, I might be wrong on this, but the only way to appear to a funder as "prolific" is by your past profile in the terms of what you published, and which projects you got funded. Since PI grants are usually given for a specific project with concrete goals, I was advised that including too many ideas in your research proposal for a grant application will make your application weaker, as it appears you have no clear idea of what to do and and/or have not clearly defined your project goals. –  penelope Nov 7, 2018 at 14:28

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5 Simple Tips for Writing a Good Research Statement for a Faculty Position

Completed your Ph.D.? What next?

Traditionally, most sought-after jobs after completing Ph.D. are university professors and industry R&D labs professionals. While industrial jobs have seen a surge in applicants to various positions, academia has prominently been the most considered field by Ph.Ds. As a part of the job application for faculty positions in academia, applicants are required to present a research statement that outlines the research they have already completed.

Table of Contents

What is a Research Statement?

A research statement is a document that summarizes your research interests, accomplishments, current research, and future research conduction plans. Furthermore, it outlines how your work contributes to the field. It allows applicants to present the importance and impact of their past, current, and future research to their potential future colleagues. However, throughout your academic career, you may be asked to prepare similar documents for annual reviews, tenure packages, or promotion.

What is the Purpose of a Research Statement?

The purpose of a research statement isn’t just about exhibiting your research interests, achievement, or other academic feats. In fact, its purpose is to make a persuasive case about the importance of your completed work and the potential impact of your future trajectory in research. In other words, researchers must coherently write about their past and current research efforts and articulately present their future research plans.

Furthermore, a research statement’s purpose is to allow the search committee to envision the applicant’s research evolution, productivity, and potential contributions over the coming years. Your research statement must promisingly convey the benefits you bring to the position. In other words, these benefits could be in terms of grant money, faculty collaborations, student involvement in research, or development of new courses.

Three key purposes of a research statement are:

• Clear presentation of your academic feats.
• Description of your research in a broader context, both scientifically and societally.
• Laying out a clear road map for future endeavors concerning the newly applied position.

How is a Research Statement Different from a CV?

While your CV gives an overview of your past research projects, it does not address the details of conducted research or future research interests. Furthermore, a CV fails to answer some questions that can be easily answered through a research statement.

• Why are you interested in a particular research topic?
• Why is your research important?
• What techniques do you use?
• How have you contributed to your field?
• How can your research be applied commercially or academically?
• Does your research have an impact on allied fields?
• Is your research directing you to newer questions?
• How do you plan to develop new skills and knowledge?

What Should You Include in a Research Statement for Faculty Position?

With over hundreds of applications being received at various departments, your research statement must stand out from the crowd and address all points concerning the target position. Expectations for research statements may vary across disciplines. However, certain key elements must be included in a research statement, irrespective of the field.

• Academic specialty and interests.
• Dedication for research.
• Compatibility with departmental or university research efforts.
• Ideas about potential funding sources, collaborative partners, etc.
• Ability to work as a professional scholar.
• Capability to work as an independent researcher.
• Writing proficiency.
• Relevance of your research and its contribution to the field.
• Significant recognition received by your research such as publications, presentations, grants, awards, etc.
• Appropriate acknowledgment of other scholars’ work in your field by giving them credits where due.
• Degree of specificity for future research.
• Long-term and short-term research goals

How to Write a Research statement for Faculty Position?

An effective research statement must present a clear narrative of the relation between your past and current research. Additionally, it should clearly state how your research aligns with the goals, resources, and needs of the institution to which you are applying.

Here we discuss 5 simple tips for writing a good research statement:

As stated earlier, a faculty position may easily receive over a couple of hundred applications. Consequently, the search committee may just glance through some applications. Therefore, you must make your research statement reader-friendly.

Following tips will allow readers to quickly determine why should they select you over other applicants:

• Organize your ideas by using headings and sub-headings.
• Space out different sections properly.
• Additionally, include figures and diagrams to illustrate key findings or concepts.
• Avoid writing long paragraphs in your research statement. Moreover, a concise yet thoughtfully laid out research statement demonstrates your ability to organize ideas in a coherent and easy-to-understand manner.

2. Ensure to Present Your Focus on Research

• Discuss feasible research ideas that interest you.
• Explain how your goals are related to your recent work.
• Additionally, mention your short-term (2-5 years) and long-term (5+ years) research goals.
• Discuss your ideas about potential funding sources, collaborative partners, facilities, etc.
• Specifically mention how your research goals align with your department’s goals.

3. Tailor Your Research Statement

• It is imperative to mention how you will contribute to the research at the institution you are applying to.
• Mention how will you use core facilities or resources at the institution.
• Furthermore, you should mention particular research infrastructure present at the target institution that you may need to do your work.

4. Write for Each Audience

• Even at top-most institutions, not all members of the search committee may be aware of the intricacies of your research work. Therefore, you should avoid jargon and describe your research work in a detailed yet lucid manner.
• Your motive must be to instill a sense of belief in the reader that you are a dedicated researcher and not overwhelm them with finer details.
• Moreover, focus on conveying the importance of your work and its contribution to the field.

5. Be Yourself

In an attempt to impress the search committee, applicants are often seen to go overboard and come out as boastful.

• Emphasize your major academic achievements.
• Be realistic and do not present research goals that are too ambitious.
• Finally, avoid comparing your research statement with other applicants.

Did you decide on the faculty position you want to apply for? How do you plan to go ahead with your research statement? Follow these tips while writing your research statement to acquire your most desired faculty position .

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Computer Science & Engineering

UC SAN DIEGO CSE FELLOWS PROGRAM

Program overview.

The CSE Fellows Program is intended to support exceptional postdoctoral researchers in computer science. The program seeks to recruit 1-3 fellows a year for a two year postdoctoral appointment working alongside a UCSD CSE faculty mentor.

Fellows will be joining a vibrant CS research community and will have access to the broader UCSD research enterprise, including the Halicioglu Data Science Institute, San Diego SuperComputer, the Design Lab, and UCSD Health. The goal of this program is to enhance the diversity of research at UCSD CSE, while also preparing the Fellows for careers in academia or industry, and to offer opportunities for student mentorship, grant writing, and collaboration across disciplines.

CSE FELLOW PROGRAM

We are not accepting applications at this time. Please check back for program updates. Thank you!

2021 CSE FELLOWS

Eleonore Ferrier

Faculty Mentor: Nadir Weibel PhD:   Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

Ferrier’s research areas are surgical education, human learning and pedagogy. During this fellowship, she hopes to create a plan for 3D-surgical learning videos that provides trainers with pedagogical guidelines and specific technologies to capture surgeries in 3D while providing learners with a 3D interactive and immersive surgical experience to learn from past surgeries using Virtual Reality (VR). 

Noah Fleming

Faculty Mentors:   Russell Impagliazzo and Samuel Buss PhD: University of Toronto

Fleming hopes to develop deeper connections between the size required of proofs in certain fragments of logic and the complexity of solving certain total search problems -- computational problems guaranteed to always have a solution. These connections have underpinned recent advances in the areas of circuit and proof complexity, and a deeper understanding of such connections will hopefully lead to further advancements.

Following his appointment as a CSE Fellow, Noah accepted an Assistant Professor position at Memorial University.

Francesco Restuccia

Faculty Mentors: Sicun Gao, Nadia Polikarpova, Ryan Kastner PhD: Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies Pisa (Italy)

Restuccia will work on advancing the security and safety of modern system-on-chip (SoC) platforms for the requirements of modern critical applications, such as autonomous vehicles, avionics, and space applications. A specific focus will be on Deep Neural Networks (DNN) hardware acceleration on FPGA SoCs.

2020 CSE Fellows

Samira Mirbagher Ajorpaz

Faculty Mentor: Dean Tullsen Ph.D., Texas A&M

Mirbagher Ajorpaz studies computer architecture, machine learning and computer system security. She works on designing prediction units into processors to increase efficiency; exploring machine learning technologies to fit into microprocessors’ small scale and tight timing margins; and developing more secure processor designs. In winter 2021, Ajorpaz is teaching CSE 240C, Advanced Microarchitecture.

Following her appointment as a CSE Fellow, Samira accepted an Assistant Professor position at North Carolina State University.

Faculty Mentor: Scott Klemmer Ph.D., Stanford University

Jane E studies the intersection between human-computer interaction, computer graphics and photography. Creative endeavors can be intimidating and sometimes it’s hard to get expert advice. The solution may be building coaching directly into the creative tool. These embedded insights could help photographers understand lighting, composition, etc. During her thesis work, she focused on designing camera guidance tools that could help novice photographers assess their artistic choices. Now, she wants to extend this coaching to other creative areas.

Faculty Mentors: Geoff Voelker and Stefan Savage Ph.D. candidate, UC Berkeley

Grant Ho studies computer security with a special focus on the intersection between data and security. He develops algorithms, systems and empirical insights to help organizations thwart sophisticated attacks. At CSE, he will study new defenses against targeted enterprise attacks, which have generated billions in losses, developing approaches that identify and mitigate attacks to make organizations more resilient and secure.

Following his appointment as a CSE Fellow, Grant accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Chicago.

Daniel Moghimi

Faculty Mentors: Deian Stefan and Nadia Heninger Ph.D.: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Daniel Moghimi studies computer security, focusing on side-channel cryptanalysis, microarchitectural security and hardware-based trusted computing. At CSE, he will leverage algorithmic approaches and compiler-based techniques to build automated analysis tools and architectural security primitives, automatically testing the security of trusted applications and defining new execution models to support data privacy.

Following his appointment as a CSE Fellow, Daniel accepted an Assistant Professor position at UT Austin.

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• UTCS Direct

UT Computer Science Students Win Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Submitted by Staci R Norman on Mon, 05/20/2024 - 10:00am

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the recipients of its prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF GRFP) for 2024, and students from the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences (CNS) have been prominently recognized. This year, four Computer Science students were honored with fellowships or honorable mentions, highlighting their outstanding contributions and potential in various cutting-edge research areas.

Fellowship Recipients

• Leo Orshansky, undergraduate student  - Unconventional Computing, Quantum Computing
• Stephane Hatgis-Kessell, undergraduate  - Artificial Intelligence

Honorable Mentions

• Arthur King Zhang, graduate student - Robotics
• Jason Ho, graduate student - Computer Architecture
• Jacob L. Block, graduate student - Machine Learning

College-Wide Recognition

Aside from the accomplishments within the Computer Science department, a total of six undergraduate students and nine graduate students across various departments within the College of Natural Sciences were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Additionally, two undergraduates and twelve graduate students received honorable mentions. These awardees represent a broad spectrum of research fields, including Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Marine Science, and Astronomy.

In total, 15 students from seven different departments within CNS were honored with fellowships, underscoring the diverse and high-caliber research being conducted at The University of Texas at Austin.

About the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

The NSF GRFP is a highly competitive program that supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 along with a $16,000 cost-of-education allowance, providing significant support to pursue their research at any accredited U.S. graduate institution.

These fellowships not only recognize the exceptional talents and research potential of the students but also contribute to the advancement of knowledge and technological innovation critical to the nation's economic and social well-being. The achievements of the Computer Science students, along with their peers from other departments, highlight the University of Texas at Austin's role as a leader in scientific research and education.

Adapted from an announcement by the College of Natural Sciences .

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• News & Events

PhD candidate receives scholarship for academia research

This unrestricted $7,500 award will allow Spoon to focus on her research for the final year of her PhD. 

What does it mean to have received this scholarship?

I had been seeking additional funding for the final year of PhD to allow me to focus on my research full-time, and this scholarship will help me to do that, which I am very grateful for. I have been funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship the past 3 years but my funding is up in August, so I had been searching for funding opportunities for my final year of my PhD in order to free up as much time as possible to finish my dissertation research. 

What will this funding allow you to pursue?

In the final year of my PhD, I will complete two projects relying on restricted-use government data. 

The first project encompasses in part the thesis for my master’s degree in education policy, which I have been working on concurrently during my PhD in computer science. I am leading a data linkage project with restricted-use data from the U.S. Census Bureau and college and careers data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics to measure how access to STEM careers differs for students from different geographic and demographic backgrounds, and for those who took different educational pathways to their jobs.

The second project is a collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies to link faculty employment records with detailed restricted-use demographic and earnings information over time to study earnings gaps in academia across gender, race, and institution.

I will also be helping with several collaborative projects in my lab group given my expertise in running large surveys of faculty through prior work. 

​What is the process like to receive this scholarship? 

The scholarship had a nomination process, but we could self-nominate, which is what I did. We wrote short answers about our research experiences, career plans, and motivations for applying for the scholarship.

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