Scientific Editing Services Providing guidance and support for developing competitive grant proposals.

This page is read the most carefully by reviewers – repeated revisions are worth the trouble. Remember that if the proposal changes, the Specific Aims page needs revision too. Make sure you allow time for that critical polishing phase.

Drafting an Effective Specific Aims Page

Watch Drafting an Effective Specific Aims Page video to learn more about key elements that go into a specific aims page, including:

• Outlining your specific aims page using those key elements
• Breaking down an example of an effective specific aims page that uses those elements
• Fleshing out your specific aims page with key considerations
• Using the SMART framework to refine your specific aims

Download the “Effective Specific Aims Page Handout” as a companion guide to the video.

Top 5 Tips for an effective Specific Aims page:

1. Keep the page concise and consistent with the rest of your proposal (ensure there are no discrepancies!).
2. Mention relevant data as you build rationale and preliminary data to document team expertise.
3. Include enough about the approach for each aim to demonstrate feasibility without going overboard on details.
4. Use formatting like underlining or bolding to highlight the key elements of your aims page (e.g., the major problem/gap in knowledge, your hypothesis, your aims, etc.).
5. Include an impact statement to reiterate the importance of your proposed work and impact on your field. Be sure to highlight the proposal innovation.

See NIH’s website for additional tips.

Key Elements & Top 5 Tips for Research Strategy: Watch our Key Elements & Top 5 Tips for Research Strategy video to learn more about essential elements of the Research Strategy. See also NIH’s website for additional guidance and tips!

NIH Simplified Peer Review Framework: Watch our video on the NIH Simplified Peer Review Framework, which is now used to review most research project grants (starting January 2025), including most R and U awards. You may also see NIH’s website for more information.

Significance Tips:

• The background section is NOT just a literature review: provide enough background to convince the reviewer that the research question is both novel and relevant—also should be framed to convey rationale to go down the proposed route.
• Use bolding or italics to highlight (1) key knowledge gaps or unmet needs of the field and (2) statements describing how the proposed work will address those gaps/unmet needs. Try to use consistent formatting and not overdo it.
• To convey the rigor of prior research and importance of the problem or critical barrier use subheadings to organize the content and use statements instead of topic sentences.

Innovation Tips:

• SHOW to tell—avoid merely stating something is “innovative” or “novel” without explaining how. Is this the first time this is being done? How will your work move the field forward? How are you applying a method in a novel way?
• Use bullet points to make it easy to identify each innovative aspect of your proposed work.

Approach Tips:

• Approach needs to be sound and achievable. Highlight elements of rigor: potential biases in the data, plans to ensure reproducible and robust data, biological variables. Convey your time frame and expertise of the team.
• At the beginning of this section, provide an overview of your approach before jumping into the methods/experimental details to help orient the reader.
• Organize this section by your specific aims, using a bold header for each aim. Under each, describe the experimental design and methods, including detail on how data will be collected, analyzed, and interpreted.
• Discusses potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success anticipated to achieve the aims.

The NIH limits this section to 30 lines of text; other funders typically have length limits as well. Consider the Summary as your “elevator speech” to reviewers and the funder. Stress what you really want them to know about your proposal – the need for answers to a scientific question, public-health importance, or timeliness of a particular opportunity, for example. Try not to merely repeat what the Specific Aims are, since those are explained in detail elsewhere. 

Be sure to mention each point you consider a strength, such as strong preliminary data, a unique animal model, or a strong investigative team. The Summary is read by all reviewers, including those not expert in the field. Keep abbreviations to a minimum and use as little jargon as possible.

Key Elements & Top 5 Tips for Human Subjects, Vertebrate Animals, and Biohazards: Watch our Human Subjects, Vertebrate Animals, and Biohazards video to learn more about the importance of these pieces in NIH proposal review and our top 5 tips for addressing them.

Top 5 Tips:

1. Start early – don’t leave these sections to be completed until the week before submission. Especially with the Human Subjects section, you will have several attachments and form field to answer.
2.  Cross-reference with the Research Plan – these sections should reinforce and not simply repeat what is included in the Approach section. Be cautious to not appear like you are using these sections to circumvent page limits of the Research Plan.
3. Address inclusion plans as part of the research design and Approach section. Use subheadings or formatting to help aspects of your inclusion plans (e.g., inclusion and exclusion criteria) stand out.
4. Protection of Human Subjects and Vertebrate Animals documents are meant to tell where the risks exists and how you plan to address them – not to elaborate on research design details.
5. Acknowledge if any biohazards will be included in your Approach section by pointing out any procedures, situations, or materials that may be hazardous to personnel and the precautions to be exercised. In the Facilities and Resources document, mention any special facilities that will be used for working with biohazards and any other potentially dangerous substances.

NIH Resources:

1. Human Subjects Research
2. Vertebrate Animals Section
3. Biohazards and Select Agents

Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan

For NIH application due dates on or after May 25, 2026, the 2026 Pilot DMS Plan format is required for the DMS Plan. Please see NIH’s “Writing a Data Management and Sharing Plan” website to download the latest template for use in your application.

Resource Sharing Plan

Your application may need to include a Resource Sharing Plan if your research will develop unique research tools or create a new model organism. The content and level of detail in a sharing plan depends on several factors, such as the status of the development of a model organism, the method of sharing, and the potential impact of intellectual property rights on the available animal model. Include a justification if you are not providing a plan for an organism that would normally require sharing.  Review the NIH policies on resource sharing and NIAID’s website on the Resource Sharing Plan.