Upload
ricardo-lorton
View
213
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Specific Aims
or Selling your Science in One Page
Pedro Fernandez-FunezAssistant Professor of Neurology and
• The Specific Aims are the template or master plan for your Research Plan
• If this section works well, everything else will fall naturally in place
Russell and Morrison 2010
Capturing the votes
• Reviewers not assigned to your proposal need to catch up during presentation. Abstract, Aims, Significance and Innovation will provide that information
• Include everything that is important and exciting, but without detail
• The Aims provide a conceptual framework for the assigned reviewers. The flow of logic has to be so compelling that other reviewers can follow while someone else is talking
• For a compelling flow of logic, all the components of this section need to be appropriately linked, which requires in-depth understanding of what each component is meant to convey
Russell and Morrison 2010
Tip: outlining is your key to developing linkage and avoid unnecessary detail
Structure of the Specific Aims
Structure of the Specific Aims
The Introduction
• Relevance of proposal to human health• Current knowledge, set up the gap in
knowledge• Gap in knowledge / unmet need
At this point, the reviewers should understand the medical relevance, be up to speed with current knowledge, and should understand that there is a gap in the knowledge base that constitutes an important problem
What, Why, Who• Long-term goal• Objective of this application: the expected
product of the research• Central Hypothesis:– Link to objective, provides focus (direction)– Objectively testable– How it was generated (prelim data, work by others)
• Rationale: what will become possible that is not possible now
The foundation: The Hypothesis
http://medicine.emory.edu/research/R_series.cfm
Specific Aims paragraph• Convey specific about the research• Grow from hypothesis, test its parts• Brief, informative, attention-getting headlines
• Each aim should convey WHY that part is proposed, not WHAT will be done
• Your aims should answer the question: WHY am I proposing this part?
• Avoid descriptive words: compare, correlate, investigate, determine
• 3-4 aims for RO1, 2 for smaller grants, not interdependent
Spelling out your aims
No funding to generate Tg animals
Not hypothesis-driven. Open-ended discovery
Not hypothesis-driven
Interdependent aims
Specific Aims template (beware of templates)
The Payoff paragraph
• Expected outcomes of the research• Positive Impact
Linear progression of logic
GAP
Objective
Central Hypothesis
Specific Aims
Expected Outcomes
Consider a diagram of your aims
From the experts:
• Keep it simple – expect that your reviewers will be smart but not necessarily experts in your field.
• NIH reviewers are unlikely to review grants directly in their field of expertise
Revise, Revise, Revise
• As you write your ideas down, they will become clearer
• As your ideas become clearer revise your aims page
• Writing a grant is a wonderful opportunity to focus the efforts of your lab– What is most important– What has to get done quickly
Final thoughts
• Start early
• Grant writing is hard work
• Administrative stuff takes A LOT OF TIME– Get it done early!!!!!!
• Talk through your aims with your colleagues
• Refine and revise your aims as you write the body of the grant – it is okay if they change
• Writing a grant is fun – it is an opportunity to refocus and take your research to the next level !!!!
• Talk with your NIH Program Officer – they have great advice and are your advocate
Good Luck!!!!