I've been busy the last few weeks with, among other things, writing a NIH R01 proposal. Along the way I got to thinking about the various stages* in the grant writing process...
1) Elation - Woohoo!!! I have this killer, sure-to-be-funded, knock-the-reviewers-jocks-off** idea for a grant! With all the preliminary data any reviewer could possibly want! I can't wait to get started!
2) Determination - Gotta write. Gotta write. Go away, can't talk now. Gotta write.
3) Anger - Funding rates are WHAT?!?!?!?
4) Denial - Who the fuck is going to fund this steaming pile of wombat crap?
5) Acceptance - What the hell. Let's just submit the bugger. They have to fund someone.
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* I'm not the first: http://creativecommonwealth.ky.gov/2011/11/02/grant/
** Yes, jocks not socks. It really is that good an idea.
[...] at Pondering Blather, the inimitable Odyssey shares his Five Stages of Grantwriting, an apt twist on the old Five Stages of Grief story. It hit quite close to home, as I'm now [...]
I stay at #3 pretty much at all times. Kinda screws with productivity.
Numbers 3 and 4 do make for quite the transition energy barrier...
I'm looking at Jan/Feb deadlines and spent all day in Stage 1 and am not looking forward to moving onto Stage 2. Fortunately, a couple of the grants are resubmissions which probably requires the addition of Stage 2.5 ... The previous reviewers want me to do WHAT?
To be fair, most NIH reviewers may not know what a wombat is, let alone a "steaming pile of wombat crap"... Then again, that might work to your advantage.
[...] at Pondering Blather, the inimitable Odyssey shares his Five Stages of Grantwriting, an apt twist on the old Five Stages of [...]