Skip to content

Tips for writing grant applications

Logistics for fellowship applications

  • Send a draft of the Specific Aims section to Rasi at least 4 weeks before deadline, but no later than 3 weeks before deadline.
  • Send a draft of the full proposal to Rasi at least 2 weeks before deadline.
  • All fellowship applications have to be approved by Fred Hutch irrespective of whether the prospective funder needs institutional approval. Please contact our lab's research administrator at least 1 month before the deadline to let them know that you will be applying.

Start with the Specific Aims section

  • To outline the aims, add a sentence or two to each of the questions:
    1. Who are the target audience?
    2. What is the problem?
    3. What is known?
    4. What is not known?
    5. What is the solution you are proposing?
    6. What are you bringing that is unique (‘Innovation’)?
    7. What is the expected impact (‘So what?’)?
    8. What are the key resources / personnel that you need?
  • Run the above (usually this is ‘Specific Aims’) by Rasi, lab members, or other colleagues.

Convert Specific Aims into an outline

  • Convert the Specific Aims to an outline in the format required by the funding agency. These are usually the ‘Significance’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Approach’ sections of NIH grants.
  • Each Aim can be subdivided into multiple sub-aims in the Approach section.
  • Each sub-aim should have a Rationale, Method, Expected Outcome, Alternate Plans section.

Expand the outline

  • Use short sentences without conjunctions or multiple clauses. Whenever possible, break longer sentences into multiple short sentences.
  • Proofread and get it reviewed by your lab members and a few outside colleagues.

Writing Background or Significance

Your Background or Significance section should address 3 points:

  1. Why is the problem you are studying important and interesting?
  2. What are the existing gaps in our knowledge or limitations of current approaches to study the problem?
  3. How is your approach going to address the above gap.

Your background should not contain information that is unrelated to your project. Ask yourself if a background sentence will help the reader understand your research design or outcome. If it doesn't, remove the sentence.