planning

Grant Writing for Page One: Honing the Specific Aims/Objectives Section

Most grant applications require a 1-page summary that describes your proposed work: introducing the area of research/problem addressed, stating your objectives/research questions and hypothesis, and highlighting why the work is important.

This section may be called different things – Specific Aims, Executive Summary, Overview and Objectives are some of the terms – but all need to accomplish the same goals: to capture the interest of your reviewers and provide a clear, succinct, and convincing summary of what you are asking the agency to fund and why they should fund it. Even if your proposal does not require this as a separate section, it is usually good grantsmanship to provide this overview as the first page of your proposal anyway. This section is critical to ‘hooking’ your reviewers and keeping them invested in reading the rest of your proposal!

This small group Page One workshop focuses on crafting and refining this 1-page summary through a combination of instructor feedback and intensive peer review. You will revise and receive feedback on your drafts two times over the course of the workshop. If you have a developed project idea and are planning to apply for funding within the next six months, you are encouraged to register.

Participants must be able to attend all four sessions and must submit an initial draft of the aims two weeks before the first workshop date. If you are interested but cannot attend on these dates and times, please let us know.

Open to all faculty and limited to 10 participants per session.

2020 Schedule

Winter session: Fridays, January 10, 17, 24, 31

Spring session: Special focus on NIH K awards: Tuesdays, March 24, 31, April 7

Page One for Postdocs (3 weeks): Tuesdays, May 5, 12, 19

  • 10am – 12pm
  • Medford campus
  • Special session designed for postdoctoral scholars on all Tufts campuses.
  • Please contact the Postdoctoral Student Association (PDA) at PDA-president@tufts.edu for registration and questions.

Summer Session

  • Details TBD

Fall session: Offered jointly with Tufts CTSI for a research focus on biomedical, clinical, or translational projects: dates TBD

  • @CTSI on Boston campus