Glossary · Match
Specific aims page
The specific aims page is the one-page summary at the front of an NIH research plan: the problem, why it matters, the hypothesis, and the two or three aims that say what the project will do.
How it works in a university-industry collaboration
NIH limits the specific aims to one page for every application that uses the section, including SBIR and STTR (NIH page limits). NIAID calls it "a capsule of your Research Plan" and points out that all the reviewers read it. Its advice is to spend at least half the page on the rationale and significance, and to state each aim in one to three sentences, led by a strong verb such as identify, quantify, or determine (NIAID). Other agencies use other formats. NSF's SBIR and STTR programs start with a short Project Pitch instead (NSF).
For a university-industry proposal, the aims page is also the clearest brief you can give a possible partner. It shows what the work needs, and on an STTR it's where the split between the company and the research institution first becomes visible.
Translation Box: aim
On the academic side: a research objective built around a testable hypothesis.
On the industry side: closer to a work package, with a deliverable and a decision that depends on it.
What Helikon does with it
On the Helikon platform, you can paste your specific aims page into Partner Search and get university researchers ranked by how closely their published work matches it, with the reasons for each match.
Sources
- National Institutes of Health, Page Limits. www.grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide/page-limits
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Write Your Research Plan. www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/write-research-plan
- NSF SBIR/STTR, Project Pitch information. seedfund.nsf.gov/apply/project-pitch-information/