1. NIH Writing Your Specifics Aims CHIP Grant Workshop 2014 Amy Gorin, Ph.D. Listen Up! This is a critical section of your application.

2. SPECIFIC AIMS: One page that can make or break your chances of funding.

5. Your Audience Significance Investigator(s) Innovation Approach Environment Impact

6. The gap… Your objective… Central hypothesis… Specific aims… The payoff… http://www.grantcentral.com/index.html

7. Introductory Paragraph Opening sentence –Grab their interest Current knowledge –Review state of the science for those not necessarily in your field Lead up to the…

8. Long-term goal Objective Central hypothesis Rationale

9. Specific Aims Paragraph Brief and informative headlines Hypothesis-driven Provide the why Avoid descriptive language Limit to 3-4 aims

10. Payoff Paragraph Expected outcomes Significance Impact Uniqueness of team Relevance to NIH mission

11. Flash Mob!

13. Too many abbreviations No logical flow Critical gap not established Overly ambitious Questionable assumptions So what???

14. Make an outline Expand, refine, revise Get feedback (and more feedback…) How to start? Leave time for a fresh look

16. Someone has to finish second. Most important page then becomes… Introduction to Revised Application