Should I include images on my Specific Aims page?

As you work toward your next NIH grant application deadline, like many others you are probably painstakingly working to construct a Specific Aims page that will convey the importance of your work and excite the reviewers. You may even be wondering whether it would help your Aims page stand out if you include a figure on the page. If you are thinking of including any graphics on your Specific Aims page, there are several factors to consider.

First and foremost, there is a lot of information to cover on a Specific Aims page. You will need to clearly state the problem to be solved by your work, potential impact of the project, briefly summarize your preliminary data, and describe your overall objective, hypothesis, aims, and future directions. All of this needs to be packed into 1 page! Despite advice from well-meaning colleagues, the solution to meeting the page limit is not to condense your font spacing and remove spacing between paragraphs - this will only serve to make your text dense and difficult to read, potentially annoying the reviewers.

Sure, figures can be used in some cases to save space. However, for the Specific Aims page you are better served focusing on writing clearly and concisely, in a manner that is visually appealing, so the reviewers can quickly read the page and understand the key elements of your project. A summary figure that shows your project plan can be included at the end of the Significance section of your proposal. Images of preliminary data should be included in the Preliminary Data section of your Approach. This allows the figures to be placed in more detailed context and will maximize their impact. Just like overusing bold or underlined text, poorly placed figures can lose their effectiveness if not used appropriately.

As with all things grant related, there are exceptions. You may know someone with a funded proposal that included a figure on the Specific Aims page. However, I highly recommend keeping the aims page simple to enable reviewers to quickly read and understand your project without having to interpret a figure.