How To Describe The Goals & Objectives of Your NIH Grant
I’m a huge believer in processes, especially when it comes to nailing your R01.
Processes help light the way for your grant writing instead of starting from scratch and feeling like you’re writing in the dark.
One successful process that has helped hundreds of grant writers is my framework for developing your Specific Aims page, one of the most important sections of your NIH Grant.
A big part of that page is diving into your goals and objectives.
Start With Your Long-Term Goals
Long-term goals provide your reviewers with a birds-eye view of your trajectory as a researcher.
And these goals should do a few things.
First, they should describe the program of research that you intend to pursue over several rounds of funding support as you chip away at the larger problem your research is addressing.
Second, they should solve that big, juicy scientific clinical or population-level problem you described in the introduction section of your Aims page.
Before we move on to project objectives, here’s another perspective on long-term goals. When you develop and describe your long-term goals, think LONG.
Your goals should go beyond a single grant or project. Think bigger. Think as big as your problem.
Solving that problem is going to require that you fill a bunch of gaps over a long time period. Describing your long-term goal in terms of the problem will help reviewers to see that you’re working on something big, rather than a flash-in-the-pan type of project. They’ll see you are ready to make a career of moving the field forward and making great strides toward ultimately solving the big problem. (One caveat: some funding mechanisms are appropriate for one-and-done type projects, but here we’re talking about major research project grants—and demonstrating that you’re working on something big will benefit you here)
Establish Your Project Objectives
It’s not enough to acknowledge a long-term goal. At this stage, it’s time to talk about the objectives of your proposed research, which will help reviewers understand what you’re trying to accomplish…and what success looks like.
With that in mind, make sure you’re describing concrete objectives—think of them like “deliverables”. For example, if your project objective is “to better understand X”, how will we know that’s successful? It’s too vague and there’s no endpoint. When you’re describing your objectives, use terms that are concrete and tangible. Set them up in a way so you and your readers know exactly what to expect at the end of the project.
Present Your Supporting Evidence
Once you’ve clearly stated your long-term goals and objectives, it’s time to talk about the supporting evidence for your research project.
You want to provide enough context for how you arrived at your project objective (and general hypothesis, if applicable). On your Specific Aims page this can be a little tricky because you want to stay concise and not get bogged down in too many details, but you do need to give your readers enough evidence so that your objective (and hypothesis) is well founded. The key here is to stay high-level and remember that you’ll have ample opportunity to dive into the details in the full application. An easy way to do this is to dedicate one or two sentences about your preliminary data and/or other supporting evidence. Again, fight the temptation to go deep. Stay dedicated to being clear and concise.
If applicable, explain the general/central hypothesis that motivates your project. This should be general enough to act as an umbrella for your Specific Aims while being clear enough that it gives focus to your work.
Please remember: your general hypothesis should be something that can be tested. As a grant consultant I’ve seen a lot of terrible “hypotheses” that aren’t really hypotheses at all. Which is fine if you’re not doing hypothesis-driven research…but if you are, be careful.
Taking Action On Your Aims Page
More than anything, I hope you’re getting a clear picture of why each section of your Aims page is important and seeing the connection from section to section. Even if you do see the value of this page and you’re excited to learn more, it all means nothing if you don’t sit down at your desk and start writing. Remember this.
Your Aims page and your R01 application don’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be finished. And the only way to finish is to get started.
Take it step-by-step, and you will be amazed at the progress you’ll make toward becoming a funded NIH researcher.
How To Get Started Fast
I love overachievers because they’re motivated to get the work done. If you’re an overachiever and want to get your Specific Aims page done fast, but done the right way, click here to gain FREE access to my resource library. It’s perfect for independent self-starters or those who want a taste of what we deliver in our paid training programs. Join today!