The phrase "a substantial work in" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a significant or important piece of work related to a specific field or subject.
Example: "The author has produced a substantial work in the field of environmental science that has garnered much attention."
Alternatives: "a significant contribution to" or "an important piece in".
The distance between that piece and Mr. Lindberg's new Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, a substantial work in three movements, is considerable.
We are meeting at Timothy Taylor because her major new show at Tate Britain is not yet hung, and her studio is unhelpfully crowded with a substantial work in progress, Homage to Gertrude Stein.
"It's a substantial work in progress, but the biggest problem is the lack of infrastructure," said Michael Robinet, director of global production forecasts for IHS Automotive in Northville, Michigan.
(For instance, Gaifman (1992) asks if the Gricean process does any substantial work in Burge's account).
1960, reprinted 1998) edited by the American psychologist James Mark Baldwin, though the publication of The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967, reprinted 1996) provided a substantial work more in line with modern tastes.
B-PaDY hangs on the rail at the upper part of the production line and provides coverage for a substantial work space in the bumper assembly process.
"A substantial work force is needed in the offshore wind sector to build and maintain the offshore wind farms currently planned or under construction," the industry body said in a recent report.
He occupied a considerable part of his retirement writing a substantial work of autobiography, published in three volumes under the title Retrospect of an Unimportant Life.
In a substantial work of paper engineering, including turning cog wheels as part of the front cover, David Macauley's How Machines Work (Zoo Break!) is a vivid interactive introduction to simple scientific principles all neatly wrapped up in a story.
Book reviews provide an excellent opportunity for scholars to expand their reach to the fringes of legal academia by anchoring their commentary in a substantial work of scholarship by a different author.
Teju Cole's gifted first novel, "Open City" (Random House), is a beguiling and substantial work, in which the flaneur-like narrator wanders around Manhattan (and briefly Brussels), meeting people and musing on those encounters, as well as on his Nigerian childhood and on politics, on literature, music, and American history.
