Grant Writing Assistance: Specific Aims, Specifically

Grant proposals are among the most structured documents in research. NIH and NSF both publish explicit scaffolds: specific aims, significance, innovation, approach, broader impacts. Structure is what LLMs do best. The danger is that structure also lets bad content hide — you can produce a perfectly-formatted proposal that says nothing new.

The specific aims workflow

1. 1Write a one-paragraph description of the scientific problem, in plain English
2. 2Ask the LLM to propose 3 specific aims that would address the problem
3. 3Refine the aims with your domain expertise — the LLM doesn't know your field well enough
4. 4Ask the LLM to pressure-test each aim: 'what would a skeptical reviewer say?'
5. 5Draft the specific aims page with the refined aims

The broader impacts section (NSF)

Broader impacts is where proposals often get weakest — researchers tack on outreach bullet points at the end. Use the LLM to pressure-test your broader impacts: 'Would a program officer find these specific, funded-to-execute, and measurable? If not, rewrite.'

• Save every prompt and response — funders may require AI-use disclosure
• Your institution likely has an AI-use policy for grants; check it
• For NIH, the 2024 guidance discourages AI use for peer review but allows AI-assisted writing with disclosure

The big idea: AI drafts grant scaffolds beautifully. The science has to come from you — and the institutional disclosure rules matter.