NIH Specific Aims worksheet

Reviewed 2026-10-01. The standard NIH Specific Aims attachment is up to one page; verify the NOFO and page-limit table. This is a planning worksheet for investigator-authored content, not a complete application or a required paragraph/aim count. NIH permits limited AI assistance, but applications or sections substantially developed by AI are not eligible under its application policy.

Problem, gap and importance

[What consequential scientific problem does the applicant seek to resolve?] [What do cited studies establish, and what important question remains?] [Why will resolving that question advance knowledge or health?]

Use verified current statistics only when they help the argument. Do not insert canned disease-burden numbers or assert that a therapy does not exist without checking.

Objective, rationale and organizing idea

[Long-term goal, if useful.] [Specific objective achievable in this application.] [Investigator's central hypothesis, research question, or development objective.] [Actual preliminary evidence or published rationale, with limitations and provenance.]

Use placeholders for missing results. Do not turn hypothetical observations into "our preliminary data" or imply that a named cohort or facility is available.

Aim [number]: [Action and knowledge/result sought]

[Rationale for the aim.] [Applicant's proposed design, principal comparison and analysis.] [What different outcomes would establish.] [Important dependency and feasible alternative if that dependency fails.]

Repeat only as the scientific scope requires. NIH does not mandate two, three or four aims. A development or discovery project need not be forced into a causal-hypothesis format. An aim is more informative when it states what will be learned than when it merely lists a technique.

Expected contribution

[Summarize the knowledge or capability the work could deliver.] [Explain the next scientific step without promising clinical adoption, efficacy or a future trial that the proposed evidence cannot establish.]

Review and formatting

Check whether an informed reader can identify the gap, importance, objective, approach and feasibility. For applicable RPGs, those support NIH's Importance and Rigor/Feasibility factors; expertise/resources must also be adequate. Keep the substantive science the applicant's own and verify all citations, data, resources and commitments.

Follow NIH attachment formatting: at least half-inch margins, ordinarily at least 11-point body text, at most six lines per vertical inch and 15 characters per horizontal inch. Graphic text may be smaller if legible at actual size. Export and inspect the PDF; this worksheet itself is longer than a finished aims page and is not evidence of page compliance.