1. Sections of a standard grant proposal:
Emphasis on Specific Aims

2. Brought to you from BUSPH
Deborah Bowen, PhD
Professor and Chair
Community Health Sciences
Director
Prevention Research Center
Roberta F. White, PhD
Professor and Chair Environmental Health
Associate Dean for Research
BUSPH

3. Scientific sections Project summary/abstract Specific aims
Significance
Innovation
Approach
(References, Human subjects, animals)

4. Abstract/project summary
Clear summary of study
Minimize jargon
Highpoints:
Context
Importance (scientific, clinical)
Uniqueness
Innovation
Translation

5. Specific aims-1 Very specific, concrete
Scientific aims, not process aims
Between 1-4 aims
Worded to convey exactly what you are going to get from the studies
Describe substantial body of work that can be accomplished methodologically and with requested resources--be careful of being “overly ambitious” in aims

6. Specific aims--2
Aims often preceded by text that links to national or big picture science: state why study will produce new science, how it is innovative
Aims often followed by summary methods paragraph that may include clinical/translational applications of findings
Some people imbed hypotheses in aims

7. Significance Provides the why and the so what of the grant
Shaped like a V, from general to specific
Often one third of the grant text
Identifies the scientific area, argues that you can fill the gap with your studies

8. Innovation
This section has to knock the reviewers’ socks off with excitement
Often formatted in hard hitting, clear and snappy bullets
Often begins with the phrase, This project is innovative because: and then lists a set of bulleted innovations

9. Preliminary studies go anywhere!
Made to answer the “why you” part of this grant
Filled with unpublished and preliminary data – yours and others
A place where you can show off a little and provide evidence of your readiness

10. Approach Here is where you tell them how you will do it
Needs to be orderly, detailed, referenced, clear
Needs to address any thought of “How?”
Careful use of appendix here is often necessary

11. Audiences Title/abstract Whole grant Abstract/Specific aims
Review section administrators
Agency/institute project officers
Whole grant
Primary, secondary, tertiary reviewers
(include quotable sections addressing as many review criteria as possible)
Abstract/Specific aims
Other members of study section or review committee

12. Aims example (funded R01)
Specific aims are as follows:
To evaluate the mediating cross-sectional effects of material resources (e.g., walkability of neighborhood, availability of healthy foods; cost of food);psychosocial context (e.g., body image, norms of family and culture);and stress process (e.g., mood, sleep disturbance, cortisol) in the relationship between SES, weight-related behaviors (physical activity and eating patterns) and BMI in middle-age women
To evaluate the relationship between SES and change in weight over a 3-year period
To evaluate longitudinally the mediating effects of material resources, psychosocial context, and the stress process in the relationship between SES, weight-related behaviors, BMI and central adiposity in middle aged women.
Middle-aged obesity in women as relates to SES and other factors
Focus on Hispanic women

13. Aims example (funded R21)
Thus, the specific aims of this proposal are to:
1) create a package of proven health promotion and prevention interventions that is culturally appropriate in AI/AN workplace settings;
2) test the feasibility of implementing this package in 4 different types of AI/AN workplaces; and
3) evaluate its acceptability and usability.
R21 on American Indian/Alaska Native people, health dispartities and intervention approaches

14. Aims example 3 (funded R01)
Specific Aim 1: Obtain repeated measurements of PBDEs in consumer products (source), dust samples (microenvironments), personal air and hand-wipe samples (personal exposure), and human serum (total absorbed dose):
a. Recruit a cohort of 50 adults from different households in the Boston (MA) metropolitan area;
b. Develop and administer a questionnaire on potential PBDE sources in three microenvironments (home, workplace, car) and other potential determinants of PBDE exposure (e.g., age, diet, activity patterns);
c. Estimate PBDEs in potential sources (e.g., furniture, carpet, electronics) from three microenvironments using a portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer to measure bromine as a surrogate for PBDEs;
d. Measure PBDEs in dust samples collected from three microenvironments;
Study on how people are exposed to flame retardants that have health effects

15. Example 3--2
Measure PBDEs in personal air samples and hand-wipe samples collected from each participant;
Collect a venous blood sample for the analysis of PBDEs as a measure of total absorbed dose, and for the analysis of hormone levels as a potential measure of early effect;
Repeat sub-aims (b) through (f) twice more at six month intervals for a total of three sampling rounds;
When possible, obtain a hand-wipe sample and blood sample from a child in the same households as the adults;