Research Grant Writing

Research Grants is a skill in K-Dense's Claude Scientific Writer (MIT) for writing competitive funding proposals. Its framing is that a grant is a persuasive document that must show rigor, innovation, feasibility, and impact at the same time, and that each agency weighs those differently. Version 1.2 covers NSF, NIH, DOE, DARPA, and Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

Key Features

• Agency profiles: NSF's Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts, NIH's Specific Aims and Research Strategy with Significance, Innovation, and Approach, DOE's energy and national-lab emphasis, DARPA's high-risk "DARPA-hard" programs with milestones and transition paths, and NSTC's CM03 technical proposal with a bilingual Chinese and English abstract and a research architecture diagram.
• Deep references: separate guides for each agency, specific aims, broader impacts, review criteria, writing principles, and resubmissions that respond to a summary statement.
• Templates: an NSF project summary, an NIH Specific Aims page, and a budget justification structure in assets/.
• Five-phase timeline: planning (2 to 6 months out), drafting, internal review, finalization, and submission, with the advice to submit 24 to 48 hours before the deadline.
• Mistake checklist: conceptual, writing, technical, formatting, and strategic errors, such as a budget that does not match the aims or proposing to the wrong mechanism.

Use Cases

• Drafting an NIH Specific Aims page from preliminary data.
• Writing an NSF Broader Impacts section that goes beyond outreach boilerplate.
• Planning a resubmission that answers reviewer comments point by point.

Pricing and Access

Free under MIT. Grant-writing guidance needs no network. Optional figures, such as a project timeline, come from Scientific Schematics with --doc-type grant and need an OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

Getting Started

1. Install the plugin in Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-writer, then /plugin install claude-scientific-writer.
2. Share the funding announcement, your preliminary results, and team details.
3. Start with specific aims, then ask for the narrative, timeline, and budget justification in turn.

Limitation: agency page limits and policies change; the skill's NSF notes cite PAPPG 24-1, so always check the current solicitation or NOFO. The skill also warns that schematic prompts are sent to OpenRouter, so keep unpublished details out of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it fill in agency forms?

No. Biosketches and current-and-pending forms belong in agency systems such as SciENcv, as the companion Venue Templates skill notes.

Does it cover private foundations?

Its detailed references focus on the five agencies; general writing principles still apply.

Alternatives

• Scientific Writing Skill: evidence-bound prose for the narrative.
• Peer Review Skill: use it for a mock review before submission.
• Venue Templates Skill: NSF and NIH LaTeX scaffolds and page checks.

Conclusion

Research Grants is a strong planning and drafting companion if you apply to US federal agencies or NSTC. It organizes what reviewers look for, but it cannot supply preliminary data or replace your institution's sponsored-research review. More research tools are in the skills hub.