Grant Template

Typst template for NIH-style grant documents. Uses Liberation Serif and enforces NIH formatting rules (US Letter, 0.5″ margins, 11 pt, justified text, heading styles).

Using this template

1. Click Use this template → Create a new repository on GitHub.

2. Clone your new repo and initialize the formatting submodule:

   git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPO

   Or if already cloned:

   git submodule update --init --recursive

3. Update the two badge URLs at the top of this README to use your username and repo name.

4. Copy the CI workflow into place:

   mkdir -p .github/workflows
   cp assets/grants_common/github_workflows/release.yml .github/workflows/release.yml

Writing the grant

Edit the .typ files directly. Each section is a separate file:

File	Section
main.typ	Entry point — imports sections and applies NIH formatting
aims.typ	Specific Aims
approach.typ	Research Strategy / Approach
facillities.typ	Facilities & Resources

main.typ should import the NIH template and each section file:

#import "/assets/grants_common/lib.typ": *
#show: nih-format

#include "aims.typ"
#include "approach.typ"
#include "facillities.typ"

Within a section file, use standard Typst markup:

= Specific Aims

Paragraph text goes here. *Bold*, _italic_, and @citation are supported.

== Aim 1: Short title

Description of the aim.

- Hypothesis: ...
- Approach: ...

Heading levels follow NIH rules automatically: = → bold, == → bold italic, === → italic.

Exporting individual sections

NIH submissions often require sections uploaded as separate PDFs. Compile any section on its own by passing that file as the entry point — the NIH formatting still applies because each section file sets it directly:

# Specific Aims only (1-page limit)
typst compile --root . aims.typ aims.pdf

# Research Strategy only
typst compile --root . approach.typ approach.pdf

For this to work, each section file must apply the format itself rather than relying on main.typ:

// aims.typ
#import "/assets/grants_common/lib.typ": *
#show: nih-format

= Specific Aims
...

If you need a different page limit or margin for a specific section, override just that file:

#show: nih-format.with(page-overrides: (margin: 0.75in))

Building locally

Requires Typst 0.14 and Liberation Serif (sudo apt-get install fonts-liberation or equivalent).

# Compile once
typst compile --root . main.typ grant.pdf

# Watch for changes
typst watch --root . main.typ grant.pdf

Releases and PDF builds

Creating a GitHub release triggers the CI workflow to compile main.typ and attach grant.pdf to the release. The Latest PDF badge above links directly to the most recent compiled PDF.

To create a release:

git tag v1.0 -m "submission draft"
git push origin v1.0
# Then create a release from this tag on GitHub