Randall Duncan Biological Sciences

Hypothesis and Specific Aims

Randall Duncan Biological Sciences

COBRE Grant Writing Workshop January 11, 2012

How to get that first NIH grant

New Investigator

No specific aims

Weak scientific background

No experimental description or concept

No Preliminary data

Poorly defined methods

No Grant!!!

1

General comments

? A good idea is critical, but not enough. Roughly 80% of proposals submitted to NIH are reasonably good ideas that will yield important knowledge.

? Excellent grant writers often claim they can get any reasonable idea funded.

? A poorly written grant will never be funded, even if it's the best idea in the world.

2

General Comments

There is a simple secret to writing successful grants that all the best grant writers follow, . . .

but the vast majority of applicants do not.

It's the 1st page of the grant: The Specific Aims

3

There's lots of excellent science out there.

What makes for an excellent grant?

? A compelling question ? Clarity of thought and expression ? A strong, testable hypothesis ? Logical steps (aims) to answer the question ? Rigorous experiments to answer the

question

4

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download