NIH Specific Aims page template
The Specific Aims page is a one-page summary of an NIH research application. It names the problem, states your hypothesis and lists two or three aims that test it. Reviewers often read it first and use it to decide how closely to read the rest. A reviewer who finishes the page should be able to explain your project to the rest of the study section in two sentences without opening the Research Strategy. Fill in the template below, then cut until every sentence earns its place on the page.
Most study sections assign three reviewers to an application. Everyone else on the panel may read little more than the Specific Aims page before the discussion. A page that a reviewer outside your subfield can follow is the one that gets an application discussed and scored by the whole panel instead of by the three assigned readers alone. The page limit is one page.
Free to copy and adapt. Square brackets mark what you replace. Nothing here is tied to a particular funder. Read each funder's guidelines for required headings, page limits and attachments before you paste a finished draft into their application form.
The template
Opening paragraph
Start with the problem and why it matters. End on the gap: what nobody knows yet that stops progress.
[Disease, condition or process] affects [who, with one figure on scale or cost]. Current approaches [what they do]. They fall short because [the limit]. The critical gap is [what is unknown]. Until it is filled, [what stays blocked].
Goal, objective and hypothesis
Your long-term goal, this application's objective and the central hypothesis. Say what the hypothesis rests on, ideally your own preliminary data.
Our long-term goal is [goal]. The objective of this application is [objective]. Our central hypothesis is that [hypothesis]. It is based on our preliminary data showing [finding]. The rationale is that [what becomes possible once it is tested].
Aims
Two or three aims. A reviewer reading quickly should see from the bold titles alone how the aims fit together and why each one is worth funding on its own. Each tests part of the hypothesis and can succeed even if another aim does not. Give each a bold one-line title and two or three sentences on the approach.
Aim 1. [Verb] [what]. We will [approach]. The working hypothesis is that [prediction].
Aim 2. [Verb] [what]. We will [approach]. The working hypothesis is that [prediction].
Aim 3 (optional). [Verb] [what]. We will [approach].
Expected outcomes and impact
What the field will know or have at the end. Tie it back to the gap from the first paragraph. The last sentence on the page is the one a tired reviewer remembers when the panel turns to your application for discussion.
We expect to [outcome of each aim]. These results will [fill the gap named above]. They will be significant because [what changes for patients, practice or the field next].
Skip the blank page
Quillify drafts a Specific Aims page from your papers, preliminary data and past applications. It reads the funding opportunity and tells you whether you qualify before you write a word. Then it scores the draft against the announcement and lists what a reviewer would flag first.
Questions people ask
How long is the NIH Specific Aims page?
One page. It is uploaded as its own attachment in the research plan, separate from the Research Strategy.
How many aims should I have?
Two or three is typical for an R01. Smaller mechanisms such as the R21 often have two. Avoid aims that depend on each other, since a failed first aim then sinks the rest.
Can I use AI to help write it?
NIH will not consider applications substantially developed by AI to be the original ideas of the applicant. Our guide on using AI on an NIH application covers what that means in practice.
Related guides: Can I use AI on an NIH grant application?. Where to spend your words. Writing for a reviewer with 40 proposals. Resubmitting after a decline. What Grants.gov and eRA Commons statuses mean. All free templates.
Let Quillify write the first draft.
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