grant writing: specific aims workshop
sunday, June 10, 2018 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM | Monadnock Room
A clear and well-structured set of specific aims is an essential part of a complete grant application package and provides the foundation for a convincing structure and flow of the remaining sections of the document. Postdocs may receive training on writing a manuscript or journal article, but are rarely asked to develop a comprehensive grant application until they apply for faculty positions. This workshop will guide participants through the process of refining specific aims developed on the basis of preliminary data, previous publications and research interests. The goal of this workshop is to understand how setting clear aims provides a solid backbone for all sections of a grant application. Participants will be asked to upload a draft of their specific aims prior to the workshop. Following a brief overview describing the structure and best practices for writing specific aims, participants will work in groups of three to apply the best practices discussed and feedback from their peers to their own writing.
Micah Altman, PhD
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND HEAD/SCIENTIST, PROGRAM ON INFORMATION SCIENCE at MIT
Micah conducts work primarily in the fields of social science, information privacy, information science and research methods, and statistical computation -- focusing on the intersections of information, technology, privacy, and politics; and on the dissemination, preservation, reliability and governance of scientific knowledge. Previously Micah served as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, and at Harvard University as the Associate Director of the Harvard-MIT Data Center, Archival Director of the Henry A. Murray Archive, and Senior Research Scientist in the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences. Micah earned a Ph.D. in Social Science from the California Institute of Technology, and conducted his postdoctoral research at Harvard University. Prior to studying social science, Micah worked as a software engineer in "Silicon Valley" developing software, courses, teaching and consulting on the subject of high-performance computing.
Sonal Jhaveri, PhD
DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE PROGRAMMING AT DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE
Dr. Jhaveri is an MIT alumna (BS, MS). She received her PhD from Harvard University, has been Principal Investigator on a number of grants from NIH, NSF and other private foundations, has co-authored 60 professional articles, and has consulted on a number of science and medical writing projects. She teaches Science Communication and Language Skills to graduate and medical students as well as to postdocs at MIT and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.