BEMM475 Applied Tourism Project Skills Assignment 1: Individual Research Brief
For a destination of your choice and dealing with an issue that you have identified, design a briefing document that sets out your thinking on the topic so far, the main purpose/s of the project you would like to commission, and the broad nature of the prospective research, as you imagine it.
Your research brief should enable consultants and other research professionals to enter their ideas about how to satisfy your knowledge needs with a set of defined operating parameters. It should also clearly articulate your expectations for service delivery and how the project proposals will be evaluated and commissioned.
The word limit is 3,250 words. Do NOT exceed this but please also note that it is perfectly acceptable to be below this. In reality, your ‘research brief’ will be between 2,000 and 3,250 words in length, depending on your topic. Included in the word count are the main text and any references (both in-text and part of a reference list), as well as a table of contents and an executive summary (200-300 words), if you are using them but they are not compulsory. Likewise, footnotes would be included but you are strongly encouraged not to use them (as per conventions in the APA style guide).
Necessary appendices are in addition to the word count but inappropriate and/or excessive appendices will not be read and may detract from the final assessment of your work. You will decide the format, structure and presentation of your brief and the allocation of words to each section.
As appropriate, your brief will contain many –but not necessarily all- of the following further items in the further particulars:
Introduction; Background; Context;
Project Outline / Description;
Aims and Objectives;
Specification of Requirements;
Scope of Work;
Budgets and Costing;
Timetable / Duration of Work;
Location of Work;
Application Procedure;
Evaluation Criteria / Process;
Project Management;
Client Liaison and Interface;
Service Level Expectations;
The Research Team (i.e. qualifications, competencies and capabilities, experience);
Contract, Terms and Conditions;
Submission;
Commissioning Process;
Payment and Contract Price; Dissemination;
Expected Outputs and Deliverables;
Validity of Bid; Disclaimers;
Appendices; and Glossary of Terms.
You will decide on which sections to include as well as how to label the sections of your particulars, as relevant to the project you wish to commission.
Other key project parameters are:
• The budget will be in one of three bands: EITHER up to £15k, OR up to £30k OR up to £60k, AND
• The total time from publication of the brief to (future) completion of the project should be EITHER no more than six months OR between six and nine months OR no more than a year.
You must chose a combination of budget parameter and time parameter that are appropriate to the scale and scope of the research you wish to commission.
