Research Pitch Pitchdeck Template: Outline Your Pitch Free & Online

A research pitch fails when it tries to say everything at once. Funders, collaborators, and investors decide in the first minutes whether the idea is clear, and a rambling pitch loses them before the evidence arrives. This free tool turns your idea into a tight slide outline with three templates to choose from.

What the tool does

You pick a template, problem-solution, research story, or investor pitch, and fill in four fields: the problem or question, the solution or approach, the evidence so far, and what you ask for. The tool assembles a five-slide outline in that template’s order, with a timed structure implied by the slide sequence. The outline is plain text you can copy into any slide tool, which keeps it flexible: you write the slides, the tool only supplies the skeleton and the order.

How to use it

Write the problem in one sentence a non-specialist can repeat back to you; if they cannot, the problem is not clear enough yet. Describe the solution as what you actually do, not as a list of technologies, and give evidence with numbers wherever possible, such as pilot sites or data completeness. State the ask plainly, whether it is collaboration, funding, or a pilot partner, since audiences cannot grant a vague request. Copy the outline, then build one slide per line, keeping each slide to a single idea.

Worked example

A low-cost water sensor team fills in the problem, field sampling is slow and expensive, the solution, a sensor network with phone-based readout, the evidence, a pilot in three sites with 92 percent data completeness, and the ask, collaboration and pilot funding. The problem-solution template returns five slides: problem, solution, evidence, ask, and next steps. That outline takes two minutes to build and gives the pitch a shape an audience can follow, instead of a tour through every detail of the sensor.

Reading the results honestly

An outline is not a pitch. The words on the slides matter less than whether the speaker can explain the problem without jargon and answer the first hard question, which is usually why this approach and not the existing one. Rehearse the pitch aloud and time it, because an outline that reads well on screen often runs long when spoken. If a slide cannot be explained in thirty seconds, it holds too much; split it or cut it.

Honest limits

This tool arranges your own words into a template. It does not write your pitch, check your claims, design slides, or know what a particular funder wants. The three templates are starting points, not rules, and some audiences expect a different order, such as evidence before solution. Treat the outline as a draft skeleton, and reshape it freely for the room you will actually stand in.

Practical tips

Open with the problem, not with yourself: audiences care about their own concerns first and your biography second. Put the single most impressive number on the evidence slide in large type, since one strong number beats five weak ones. End with the ask and your contact details on the final slide, and leave that slide visible during questions, so the audience leaves knowing exactly what you want.

Rehearsing with the outline

Once the outline exists, rehearse the pitch three times: once alone to learn the order, once for a colleague outside your field to test clarity, and once timed to check the length. After each rehearsal, cut one sentence from every slide, because pitches almost always improve by subtraction. If a colleague cannot repeat your problem sentence afterwards, rewrite that sentence before you rehearse again; everything else in the pitch depends on it landing.

Embed this tool on your website — free

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