Grant applications

Grants are the only way you have a job in academic research. This day and age, things are pretty competitive, so no researcher is in no way guaranteed to have grant support. In such a system, a very logical approach to increase your chances for funding is to take “many shots on goal”.

Now that I’ve written for a decent number of training grant spots, postdoctoral fellowships, and small research grants, I’ve become curious about taking a look back and seeing what my experience has been from a bigger point of view. So, I went through my old emails and saw when I submitted grants, and when they were accepted or more often, rejected. I’m obviously a firm believer in transparency of data, so here it is for other people (eg. trainees) to see as well. Also, while I don’t actually know how this fares to the “average researcher” at my career stage, I think this should be a ~ “true” (ie. unbiased) data point, as I’m fairly certain I would have posted these results whatever they were (the only potential bias is that people who don’t get ANY of the first half dozen to dozen attempts probably would have switched careers at that point).

Lines are from submission to acceptance/rejection. Light green are pre-application steps that were accepted. Dark green are full applications that were accepted. Red are applications (LOI or full) that were ultimately rejected. Gray are ones that have been submitted where I don’t yet know the outcome. Tick marks are study section and advisory council meeting dates, respectively.