Well, that was one crazy week. I was involved in a grand total of 8 grants, 5 of which had a February 29th deadline (specialised Provincial programme) with the remaining 3 due on March 3rd (CIHR operating grants – the Big One in Canadian science, more or less equivalent to an NIH R01). My role ranged from that of co-applicant, writing most of the proposal, to supplier of specific blocks of text, to proof-reader and CV formatter. And man am I glad this week is over!
Now why would these big deadlines cluster together in this way? My exhausted and over-caffeinated brain has come up with the following explanation:
- Canada does not have a large population and has limited funds available to support scientific research.
- The big funding bodies therefore set their deadlines within a day or two of each other.
- This limits the number of applications that can feasibly be submitted by one PI, thus spreading the available funds more evenly around the country.
Then, of course, big institutions start to hire people like me, whose goal is to help a group of PIs submit more applications than would usually be possible without someone having a meltdown.
Ha ha, take that, Canadian funding bodies. And will someone please take me out for a drink now? I think I’ve earned it this week…
p.s. the above is intended to be humorous. Canadian Government, if you’re reading this, I’m only joking! Please approve my upcoming Citizenship application. Thanks.
p.p.s. don’t even get me started on why the CV format requirements are different for every single competition.
p.p.p.s. T Ryan Gregory has written a beautiful post condemning the current government’s policies, which he feels are threatening the current egalitarian mode of Canadian research funding. He’s already a citizen so he can criticise with impunity! And I bet he didn’t submit 8 grants today đ
