Phase 1: NOFO + Specific Aims (R21 animacy)

[neuromechanist]

Summary

Phase 1 of Epic #35 (R21 to NIMH on the developmental trajectory of animacy-driven brain responses during naturalistic film viewing, using HBN-EEG R3 + Pixar's The Present).

Delivers the 1-page Specific Aims, the NOFO summary (PA-25-304 primary, PA-25-150 alternate), the proposal directory scaffold under proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/, and the R21 epic state file under .claude/epic-r21.local.md (separate from Epic #1's analysis state to avoid collision).

Closes #36
Part of epic #35

Key decisions (logged in proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/ideas.md)

• Target NOFO: PA-25-304 (NIH Parent R21, Clinical Trial Not Allowed), with PA-25-150 as alternate. PA-25-150's NOT-NS-26-007 renewal notice flags a 2026-05-08 transition that needs verification before targeting the joint NINDS/NIMH track.
• 2 aims, independent: Aim 1 maps the developmental trajectory; Aim 2 dissociates animacy from luminance via per-shot LLR-partialled GLM.
• Animacy framed as a within-stimulus gradient (20 boy-only vs 15 puppy-only shots), not a between-stimulus contrast, to avoid confounds.
• Falsification conditions stated on the Aims page: surviving signal in left-frontotemporal language-network sites would falsify the animacy framing.
• Specific Aims drafted at 435 words (under the 650 NIH soft cap), with bold overarching goal, bold aim titles, italic hypothesis labels, bold key methodological innovations per aim, and bold Expected Impact header per grant-writing SKILL.md conventions.

Files added

• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/README.md (status, phase tracker, repo links)
• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/NOFO.md (NOFO summary against grant-writing Step 0 fields)
• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/ideas.md (design decisions and iteration log)
• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/research.md (pointer to existing lit review + Phase 2 expansion plan)
• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/submission/specific-aims.md (1-page Aims, 435 words)
• proposals/r21-nimh/2026-animacy/{lit-review,drafts,figures,reviews,submission/research-strategy,submission/budget,submission/biosketches,submission/letters-of-support}/.gitkeep
• .claude/epic-r21.local.md (epic state file, separate from Epic Epic: HBN ERSP - Boy-shot vs Puppy-shot in 'ThePresent' (R3) #1's .claude/epic.local.md)

Test plan

• wc -w submission/specific-aims.md returns under 650 words
• Bold/italic conventions match grant-writing template (bold goal/aims/innovation/impact; italic hypothesis labels)
• Every gap claim and hypothesis cites at least one corpus paper slug
• NOFO.md captures all 8 grant-writing Step 0 fields (mechanism+agency, objectives, page limits, criteria, special requirements, eligible PIs, budget, deadlines)
• No em-dashes; abbreviations defined on first use
• markdownlint, typos, pre-commit hooks all pass
• Reviewer check: aims structure clear at first read; reviewer can state hypotheses back unaided after the Aims page
• Reviewer check: animacy framing matches NIMH portfolio rather than NINDS-leaning (consider one Aims revision in Phase 2 if Significance reads more neurological than psychiatric)

Phase boundaries (out of scope)

• Significance, Innovation (Phase 2)
• Approach, preliminary data, timeline (Phase 3)
• Budget, Facilities, DMS, Biosketches (Phase 4)
• LaTeX/PDF build pipeline, grant-review, humanizer (Phase 5)
• Bibliography expansion via opencite (Phase 2)