grant writing

A typical hypothesis driven grant in bio-med field.

Hypothesis:

Hypothesis in a grant is a big question whose answer can raise more interesting and meaningful question.  The answer to a hypothesis should not be “yes” or “no”.  A good hypothesis should be a key question in a field and worth of study for many years.  A hypothesis should not be answered by a single grant.

Specific Aims

Usually specific aim is the most difficult part of a grant.  A specific aim is a specific question, whose answer is important to the hypothesis.  Or you can regard a specific aim as a solid step toward your hypothesis.  Aim 1 to Aim 2 (to Aim 3) should have a logic flow.  Aim 1 should contribute to Specific Aim 2, but Aim 2 should not depend on the completion of Aim 1.

Experimental design

Definitive experiment: each experiment must answer a specific question clearly.

Control group is more important than experimental group.  Positive ctrl, negative ctrl, technical ctrl and other control should be considered.

Multiple approaches should be applied to answer a question.  For example, if you want to show that protein A binds to protein B and induce downstream effect, genetic approach, biochemical approach, pharmacological approach and others should considered.

Rescue experiment: try to use rescue experiment for each question.

Alternative Approaches

Always consider what if a technique or experiment does not work, for technical or biological reasons.

 

I will put down more when they come up to my mind.