How to back out of doing something that you already agreed to do?
March 7, 2015 12:20 AM Subscribe
I have been working as a postdoc for a year. I have never written a grant in my life and when one of my bosses came to me with a project in mind, I naively offered to write it. It's now 2 weeks till the deadline and I don't even know how to start.
I am being payed to work on a certain project for 3 years. That project is going well. I have also been working a bit on other projects (mainly through my bosses) if they offered a publication or anything to add to my CV. These are extras but I am generally happy to go above and beyond and put in extra time.
Now the grant thing. One of my bosses is known as a "user". He is very senior and tends to use junior academic staff as free labor while taking all the credit himself. He also has a lot of connections and it's a good idea to keep him on your good side. Anyway, he is the one that I am supposed to write the grant with. When I offered to do it, I expected some help but it became clear that he just wanted to put his name down and do zero work. Whenever I asked him something grant related, he gave me one word answers.
I feel out of my depth as the grant is an area I am only vaguely familiar with. I did some literature review and now think that the grant is a bad idea all around. It's not novel and it doesn't offer any short term solutions (which is the main assesment criteria for getting funded). I said all this to the boss and he still wanted me to write it and offered vague answers.
I feel stuck and with a lot of other work that I actually need to do for my main project. I ignored this grant thing but now it has to be faced. what do I do?
option A) Tell the boss that I am not going to write it due to lack of novelty/short term outcomes/his help and be known as a flake. The worst part is that I saw him in the corridor a week ago and he asked "Do you still plan on writing that grant?" and I said "yeah" because I couldn't think of anything else to say. D'oh.
option B) write it even though I know it's not going to be funded. Not being funded is not a huge thing as most grants don't so that failure would be OK. It's just that writing it would take ALL of my time and it would still be badly written due my lack of knowledge of this particular area. Basically my boss would know me as someone with poor writing skills which may reflect badly on the future opportunities.
But then, being a flake would too.
Help!
I am being payed to work on a certain project for 3 years. That project is going well. I have also been working a bit on other projects (mainly through my bosses) if they offered a publication or anything to add to my CV. These are extras but I am generally happy to go above and beyond and put in extra time.
Now the grant thing. One of my bosses is known as a "user". He is very senior and tends to use junior academic staff as free labor while taking all the credit himself. He also has a lot of connections and it's a good idea to keep him on your good side. Anyway, he is the one that I am supposed to write the grant with. When I offered to do it, I expected some help but it became clear that he just wanted to put his name down and do zero work. Whenever I asked him something grant related, he gave me one word answers.
I feel out of my depth as the grant is an area I am only vaguely familiar with. I did some literature review and now think that the grant is a bad idea all around. It's not novel and it doesn't offer any short term solutions (which is the main assesment criteria for getting funded). I said all this to the boss and he still wanted me to write it and offered vague answers.
I feel stuck and with a lot of other work that I actually need to do for my main project. I ignored this grant thing but now it has to be faced. what do I do?
option A) Tell the boss that I am not going to write it due to lack of novelty/short term outcomes/his help and be known as a flake. The worst part is that I saw him in the corridor a week ago and he asked "Do you still plan on writing that grant?" and I said "yeah" because I couldn't think of anything else to say. D'oh.
option B) write it even though I know it's not going to be funded. Not being funded is not a huge thing as most grants don't so that failure would be OK. It's just that writing it would take ALL of my time and it would still be badly written due my lack of knowledge of this particular area. Basically my boss would know me as someone with poor writing skills which may reflect badly on the future opportunities.
But then, being a flake would too.
Help!
At least you'll learn how to write a grant, which will be of great help later when you have something you really want to get funded. Think of it as a learning experience - maybe that will help. If you need advice, I suggest you find the Department Secretary - or whatever the title now - there's usually someone who's been quietly running the department for years - that person is the one to ask about a person who will be willing and able to help you and as for writing skills, that secretary knows exactly how to do it. Seriously. Or, if she's too busy, you may have to hire a person to put the final draft together from a writing skills standpoint - I used to make good money on the side doing exactly that.
(It's hard to get what I'm trying to say said and remain politically correct because it was 35 years ago when I was a Dept Sec at the University of Arizona and we wrote proposals on a typewriter, hand copied thirty or sixty copies, collated and stapled them by hand and rushed them to the post office to be postmarked by the deadline. The material was gathered and organized and written initially by the faculty members - the postdocs or whoever was looking for the funding, then it was hashed over by the secretary (if she'd been doing it long enough to know what she was doing) - or the technical writer/typist who had been hired for their professional writing skills. Then it was rewritten at least once and then, at last, hammered out and sent in on time. But in today's world - what do they call that person? I don't think anyone would answer to the term "secretary" now, would they? I had volumes of detailed rules and specifics for submitting articles for publication to this journal or that one - every one was a bit different - and likewise for proposals and all the rest. I had at least six full-time PhDs who expected me to keep their entire world rotating - that's what a Dept Sec did then - but I don't know what the title would be now and it's very possible that there are plenty of men doing the same job today, so using the pronoun "she" could be causing bad feelings also. I don't know what else to do except apologize for my cluelessness, which I do, but if you need help, find that person and you'll get it.)
In academia, if it's the same as it was when I worked there, the hierarchy is the law and the old docs do very little except give orders and take credit for the work of others - and publish articles under their own name, of course. But remember - they were at the bottom of the heap for a number of years and worked their way to their golden glory also.
Your boss may suspect that your grant won't get funded but he can make you do all the paperwork anyway so you'll know how to do it. It's not an easy place to be, especially after all the years you've been working to achieve this spot - but know that you have done an incredible job or you wouldn't be here today - writing a grant proposal is gravy compared to what you've done already.
Good luck.
posted by aryma at 1:55 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
(It's hard to get what I'm trying to say said and remain politically correct because it was 35 years ago when I was a Dept Sec at the University of Arizona and we wrote proposals on a typewriter, hand copied thirty or sixty copies, collated and stapled them by hand and rushed them to the post office to be postmarked by the deadline. The material was gathered and organized and written initially by the faculty members - the postdocs or whoever was looking for the funding, then it was hashed over by the secretary (if she'd been doing it long enough to know what she was doing) - or the technical writer/typist who had been hired for their professional writing skills. Then it was rewritten at least once and then, at last, hammered out and sent in on time. But in today's world - what do they call that person? I don't think anyone would answer to the term "secretary" now, would they? I had volumes of detailed rules and specifics for submitting articles for publication to this journal or that one - every one was a bit different - and likewise for proposals and all the rest. I had at least six full-time PhDs who expected me to keep their entire world rotating - that's what a Dept Sec did then - but I don't know what the title would be now and it's very possible that there are plenty of men doing the same job today, so using the pronoun "she" could be causing bad feelings also. I don't know what else to do except apologize for my cluelessness, which I do, but if you need help, find that person and you'll get it.)
In academia, if it's the same as it was when I worked there, the hierarchy is the law and the old docs do very little except give orders and take credit for the work of others - and publish articles under their own name, of course. But remember - they were at the bottom of the heap for a number of years and worked their way to their golden glory also.
Your boss may suspect that your grant won't get funded but he can make you do all the paperwork anyway so you'll know how to do it. It's not an easy place to be, especially after all the years you've been working to achieve this spot - but know that you have done an incredible job or you wouldn't be here today - writing a grant proposal is gravy compared to what you've done already.
Good luck.
posted by aryma at 1:55 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Look, you know the chances of it being funded are very low, as it's a bad idea and most grants don't get funded anyway. Which makes this the perfect opportunity for you to take a risk and give grant-writing a go. Can you imagine how stressed you'd be if this was the first grant you'd written and the idea was actually so brilliant you felt it really ought to get funded? Get some practice in before you write that all-important grant! Ask for help from as many people as you can, and give yourself permission to not knock it out of the park on your first try.
posted by Acheman at 2:41 AM on March 7, 2015 [17 favorites]
posted by Acheman at 2:41 AM on March 7, 2015 [17 favorites]
Hi. I'm a lawyer and I'm here to tell you that you can make an argument for just about anything. To get through this, get out of the mindset that it isn't novel or doesn't have short term solutions. Take a step back, break the idea down to its elements, and try to find something novel and some short term benefit. Consider these factors from all angles. Then, commit and confidently deliver your proposal. Address any glaring weaknesses (see process above) but keep the tone strong.
It might be 100% bullshit but you'll get through it. And hey: weak arguments get by judges and juries every day; who knows, maybe your weak argument will get funding.
posted by AV at 4:40 AM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
It might be 100% bullshit but you'll get through it. And hey: weak arguments get by judges and juries every day; who knows, maybe your weak argument will get funding.
posted by AV at 4:40 AM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
Ask around for someone who written a successful grant for the particular granting agency you are aiming at. Use it as a template and just write it. Businesslike. The worst thing that can happen is you don't get the grant. It is also the most likely thing (look at the granting agencies success rate to console yourself).
Most schools have people who have the explicit job of assisting grant applications. Some have entire departments. You will also have to liaise with finance in order to get the costing details. You are already dangerously late for receiving this information in time.
posted by srboisvert at 4:45 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Most schools have people who have the explicit job of assisting grant applications. Some have entire departments. You will also have to liaise with finance in order to get the costing details. You are already dangerously late for receiving this information in time.
posted by srboisvert at 4:45 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
First off, you have 2 weeks until the deadline. Cancel the rest of your work for the time being, and you will have time to churn out a grant.
Second, you're a post-doc and you've never written a grant, even a mock grant? That seems like a failure of your training. What is your end goal here? If you want to be a faculty member, you should know that they spend an enormous amount of their time writing grants. More so if you are research faculty, but teaching faculty aren't exempt (I'm assuming you're in a STEM discipline, so if not, things may or may not be different). If writing grants is your nightmare, you need to get off the post-doc-->faculty track ASAP and start thinking about other ways to apply the parts of your training you do like. At least in my subset of STEM, post-docs are expected to eventually be self-supporting, and you'll need a track record of grants if you want to stay on past year 3. Grants aren't funded immediately, so there's a good chance this grant would be paying your salary after your initial funding runs out.
Finally, the professor you are working with? He also has a lot of connections... he just wanted to put his name down and do zero work. Okay, it does stink that he's not willing to be a mentor and help you step by step with the grant writing process. But, you getting grant #1 funded is way more valuable to you than your professor getting grant #283438 funded is to him. You have way more to gain in this transaction, and it's pretty standard that the more junior person does the grunt work. Are there other faculty/post-docs/grad students you could bounce scientific or writing ideas off of? Also, him coming up with the topic and signing his name to it are actually pretty helpful for grants. He might have a better idea about which topics are getting funded, and having a known name (if its not anonymous) could give you credibility in the scoring process.
posted by fermezporte at 6:25 AM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
Second, you're a post-doc and you've never written a grant, even a mock grant? That seems like a failure of your training. What is your end goal here? If you want to be a faculty member, you should know that they spend an enormous amount of their time writing grants. More so if you are research faculty, but teaching faculty aren't exempt (I'm assuming you're in a STEM discipline, so if not, things may or may not be different). If writing grants is your nightmare, you need to get off the post-doc-->faculty track ASAP and start thinking about other ways to apply the parts of your training you do like. At least in my subset of STEM, post-docs are expected to eventually be self-supporting, and you'll need a track record of grants if you want to stay on past year 3. Grants aren't funded immediately, so there's a good chance this grant would be paying your salary after your initial funding runs out.
Finally, the professor you are working with? He also has a lot of connections... he just wanted to put his name down and do zero work. Okay, it does stink that he's not willing to be a mentor and help you step by step with the grant writing process. But, you getting grant #1 funded is way more valuable to you than your professor getting grant #283438 funded is to him. You have way more to gain in this transaction, and it's pretty standard that the more junior person does the grunt work. Are there other faculty/post-docs/grad students you could bounce scientific or writing ideas off of? Also, him coming up with the topic and signing his name to it are actually pretty helpful for grants. He might have a better idea about which topics are getting funded, and having a known name (if its not anonymous) could give you credibility in the scoring process.
posted by fermezporte at 6:25 AM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
You are in a relatively common situation, and you committed to write this grant. You need to do it. As others have said, it is also a great opportunity to learn what is involved in writing a grant and how to make a compelling argument.
To finish this, you'll need to focus on grant-writing full time. Were your aims given to you already? Develop them first and sort out the methods. Then you can get the budget in order. You'll have to get quotes or coordinate with other people for this part, so it can take several days of back-and-forth.
Certainly your professor will read your final draft. Make a point to finish (sections) early to get feedback. Get feedback from other lab members if your professor is unavailable. Give them warning that you will need quick turn-around so they can clear their schedules to help you.
Can you ask your professor for a previously-funded grant from the lab? That would help you with references and structure.
Good luck!
posted by turtle time at 6:37 AM on March 7, 2015
To finish this, you'll need to focus on grant-writing full time. Were your aims given to you already? Develop them first and sort out the methods. Then you can get the budget in order. You'll have to get quotes or coordinate with other people for this part, so it can take several days of back-and-forth.
Certainly your professor will read your final draft. Make a point to finish (sections) early to get feedback. Get feedback from other lab members if your professor is unavailable. Give them warning that you will need quick turn-around so they can clear their schedules to help you.
Can you ask your professor for a previously-funded grant from the lab? That would help you with references and structure.
Good luck!
posted by turtle time at 6:37 AM on March 7, 2015
If you decide to go ahead you need to contact your finance dept immediately and ask them to cost for the relevant staff. In the UK context where I work what they can charge will depend on what is allowed by the funding body, this varies strongly so don't make assumptions. Some funding streams will need to know what hours are being put in, whether there is some other funding in kind, etc. Your supervisor needs to let you know the scope but only finance can tell you the exact figures. They will need to know the hours for all proposed researchers on the project, travel and subsistence costs, any capital expenditure, etc. Ask for a meeting if needed, they will be set up to do this since getting grants is a big activity for them.
Then contact your research support dept and ask if anyone in your institution has applied to this body successfully before and can you get the bid. (DO NOT COPY & PASTE but paraphrasing may be useful.) Also ask to meet someone to get advice on the submission and to see what support they can offer. They might well be able to take care of big chunks of the submission - helping you get grants is their job.
Do you have a copy of the funding call setting out all the sections they expect to be filled in? There can be a lot of these, or a huge number of these, depending on the funding source. Some are probably not realistic in 2 weeks, some are, some maybe are if you do nothing but work right through. If you go ahead you should be scheduling to do nothing but grant for the next 2 weeks.
Do you know what resources you can commit or will need? Can you promise lab time? Do you need to know if you can commit lab time or time on a particular machine, etc? Are you supposed to bring in other academics or is it just you and the leave you to it dude? Can you build a bump in your pay into the bid? Are there any industry partners needed? Could there be? Can you get a statement of support from anyone? Do you need a project advisory group? Likely you will need letters of support from both industry partners and PAG members. This will take time so would need to be something to get on early.
The more I think about this, the more I think that your boss must be aware that there are questions a post doc should have asked with only 2 weeks left on the clock and if you haven't they must know that you haven't made much progress. So consider going back to them and saying you haven't made much progress and need more support, advice on all the elements to write a bid, including the non-writing stuff I mention above. If you can't speak to your boss then find another experienced academic and ask them to talk you through grant writing asap. This is a difficult position to be in and I think some academics forget how hard it can be if left to sink or swim.
Take this with a pinch of salt but its possible you may be being given enough rope to hang yourself. Writing the grant may well be necessary to show you can and that you understand what is required of you to get on in academia. This doesn't mean you necessarily have to win the grant, but it may be helpful to put out something that shows you are in a position to develop to the point where you are winning grants.
posted by biffa at 6:55 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Then contact your research support dept and ask if anyone in your institution has applied to this body successfully before and can you get the bid. (DO NOT COPY & PASTE but paraphrasing may be useful.) Also ask to meet someone to get advice on the submission and to see what support they can offer. They might well be able to take care of big chunks of the submission - helping you get grants is their job.
Do you have a copy of the funding call setting out all the sections they expect to be filled in? There can be a lot of these, or a huge number of these, depending on the funding source. Some are probably not realistic in 2 weeks, some are, some maybe are if you do nothing but work right through. If you go ahead you should be scheduling to do nothing but grant for the next 2 weeks.
Do you know what resources you can commit or will need? Can you promise lab time? Do you need to know if you can commit lab time or time on a particular machine, etc? Are you supposed to bring in other academics or is it just you and the leave you to it dude? Can you build a bump in your pay into the bid? Are there any industry partners needed? Could there be? Can you get a statement of support from anyone? Do you need a project advisory group? Likely you will need letters of support from both industry partners and PAG members. This will take time so would need to be something to get on early.
The more I think about this, the more I think that your boss must be aware that there are questions a post doc should have asked with only 2 weeks left on the clock and if you haven't they must know that you haven't made much progress. So consider going back to them and saying you haven't made much progress and need more support, advice on all the elements to write a bid, including the non-writing stuff I mention above. If you can't speak to your boss then find another experienced academic and ask them to talk you through grant writing asap. This is a difficult position to be in and I think some academics forget how hard it can be if left to sink or swim.
Take this with a pinch of salt but its possible you may be being given enough rope to hang yourself. Writing the grant may well be necessary to show you can and that you understand what is required of you to get on in academia. This doesn't mean you necessarily have to win the grant, but it may be helpful to put out something that shows you are in a position to develop to the point where you are winning grants.
posted by biffa at 6:55 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
If the grant deadline is in two weeks and you haven't started, um, you aren't going to get this done in time. You usually need to get the costings approved by finance, various departmental heads need to sign it off...
No shame in that, my first grant was similarly close to the line. I would use this grant as a dry run to work out what needs doing for future grants, who needs to sign what, and how long it all takes. Get an existing grant-holder to talk you through the process and let you see their grant. You won't get this one funded, and are probably going to miss the deadline, but as Fermezporte says, you have to learn this stuff sometime so it might as well be a project you don't care about. Your second and third grants will be much easier.
And your supervisor? This is so common, we were expected to write our own grants as new doctoral students. And you are a post-doc so really not unreasonable to expect you to do this.
posted by tinkletown at 6:58 AM on March 7, 2015
No shame in that, my first grant was similarly close to the line. I would use this grant as a dry run to work out what needs doing for future grants, who needs to sign what, and how long it all takes. Get an existing grant-holder to talk you through the process and let you see their grant. You won't get this one funded, and are probably going to miss the deadline, but as Fermezporte says, you have to learn this stuff sometime so it might as well be a project you don't care about. Your second and third grants will be much easier.
And your supervisor? This is so common, we were expected to write our own grants as new doctoral students. And you are a post-doc so really not unreasonable to expect you to do this.
posted by tinkletown at 6:58 AM on March 7, 2015
The grant application will require you to input certain information and then put down a budget and how you plan to document performance. As others have said, you can only win or lose. You'll get feedback, maybe. You can absolutely write a grant in 90 hours, which is two weeks. However, if you were able to have a grant admin timeline you could crib to work for a timeframe, you can get all the other info ... Insurance, permits, quality etc... In one day of running around the office. Or you can pay someone to write a template, but they will still create 90 hours work for you by just making you get there other information you need yourself.
posted by parmanparman at 7:34 AM on March 7, 2015
posted by parmanparman at 7:34 AM on March 7, 2015
My advice is to write the grant but submit it for the next deadline. Tell your pi you need more time but dont flake out on it two weeks before the deadline. Get copies of successful grants for whatever funding mechanism you are applying for as a template. Start with the experiments you wish to do informed by the literature - your read of the literature should point you to some holes or unresolved issues. Work back from your experiments to frame them in the introduction.
Why write this? Because you said you would, it's great experience both the writing part and the feedback part and if the grant isn't triaged your resubmission may have a go. Your sponsored funds office will make the budget but you have to meet with them (I'm a bit surprised that you don't know this) and they will do all of the forms for you. but you should get input from your pi. Getting a grant writer to write it for you is pointless.
Focusing on your pi and the reasons you shouldn't do it because of political reasons will do you no good and just feed the beast of resentment. Your pi is presumably funding your research in other ways via their resources and that is often not recognized by the lab postdocs and grad students.
posted by bluesky43 at 9:13 AM on March 7, 2015
Why write this? Because you said you would, it's great experience both the writing part and the feedback part and if the grant isn't triaged your resubmission may have a go. Your sponsored funds office will make the budget but you have to meet with them (I'm a bit surprised that you don't know this) and they will do all of the forms for you. but you should get input from your pi. Getting a grant writer to write it for you is pointless.
Focusing on your pi and the reasons you shouldn't do it because of political reasons will do you no good and just feed the beast of resentment. Your pi is presumably funding your research in other ways via their resources and that is often not recognized by the lab postdocs and grad students.
posted by bluesky43 at 9:13 AM on March 7, 2015
You don't provide any details about the grant, but it's possible that it's worth applying even if the project doesn't seem to be a good fit. You usually don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and surprises can happen.
I think it would be a bad idea to back out of writing this grant. You've already committed to doing it, and this professor might see himself as "relying" on you to finish it (even though, as you say, he's a user). If you backed out now his options would be to not apply for this grant or to scramble to get it done in the remaining time. Being a flake is bad; creating problems for other people by being a flake is worse.
It's possible to write a decent proposal in two weeks, although it will be tough. Since you say you've never applied for a grant before, I suggest trying to find examples of similar grants to use as models. Are there any faculty who would be willing to share grant applications with you for your education?
On the plus side, the next time you write an application for a grant where you've got a better chance of success, you'll have this experience and it will be easier, and your application will be better. It might seem like a waste of your time, but now that you're stuck, you might as well focus on the good that can come out of it.
I might ask the PI if you can submit it for the next deadline, but only if you don't think that this will anger him--i.e., can you tell him that you can get it done by this current deadline, but that you could do a much better job if you had more time? Is he very set on applying for this deadline?
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2015
I think it would be a bad idea to back out of writing this grant. You've already committed to doing it, and this professor might see himself as "relying" on you to finish it (even though, as you say, he's a user). If you backed out now his options would be to not apply for this grant or to scramble to get it done in the remaining time. Being a flake is bad; creating problems for other people by being a flake is worse.
It's possible to write a decent proposal in two weeks, although it will be tough. Since you say you've never applied for a grant before, I suggest trying to find examples of similar grants to use as models. Are there any faculty who would be willing to share grant applications with you for your education?
On the plus side, the next time you write an application for a grant where you've got a better chance of success, you'll have this experience and it will be easier, and your application will be better. It might seem like a waste of your time, but now that you're stuck, you might as well focus on the good that can come out of it.
I might ask the PI if you can submit it for the next deadline, but only if you don't think that this will anger him--i.e., can you tell him that you can get it done by this current deadline, but that you could do a much better job if you had more time? Is he very set on applying for this deadline?
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2015
You have multiple bosses? Get advice from the other one or ones.
posted by grouse at 7:44 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by grouse at 7:44 PM on March 7, 2015
Is the two-week deadline the time to submission or the time when Bigwig Professor wants to see it? If the submission deadline is two weeks from now, you are in big trouble.
Assuming that BP wants to review it in two weeks, stop your other work and sit down and do this. Even if you no longer feel excited about the topic, it's too late to change. As others have said, ask for a copy of a funded application to use as a model, and ask other postdocs and/or professors to review the sections as you write them.
As you write, keep in mind these two overarching goals:
1. You must persuade the grantor that what you are proposing is important. This takes a certain amount of salesmanship, which you probably disdain. Don't make that mistake. You need to be factual but you also need to be confidant. In my experience, successful grantees tend to be optimistic people. Get yourself in that mindset and start writing.
2. You need to persuade the grantor that you have everything you need--skills, experience, equipment, etc. to accomplish this important thing you are proposing.
I know you feel like you are doing all the work and BP is doing almost nothing, but you need to get over that. When he reviews the grant application, he will make changes to it that will make it more fundable. Learn from this! You have no idea how valuable this knowledge is. BP is offering you an opportunity to learn things you will use for the rest of your career. BP has experience, wisdom, and contacts. Treat him with respect. Seize this opportunity and make the most of it.
posted by islandeady at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2015
Assuming that BP wants to review it in two weeks, stop your other work and sit down and do this. Even if you no longer feel excited about the topic, it's too late to change. As others have said, ask for a copy of a funded application to use as a model, and ask other postdocs and/or professors to review the sections as you write them.
As you write, keep in mind these two overarching goals:
1. You must persuade the grantor that what you are proposing is important. This takes a certain amount of salesmanship, which you probably disdain. Don't make that mistake. You need to be factual but you also need to be confidant. In my experience, successful grantees tend to be optimistic people. Get yourself in that mindset and start writing.
2. You need to persuade the grantor that you have everything you need--skills, experience, equipment, etc. to accomplish this important thing you are proposing.
I know you feel like you are doing all the work and BP is doing almost nothing, but you need to get over that. When he reviews the grant application, he will make changes to it that will make it more fundable. Learn from this! You have no idea how valuable this knowledge is. BP is offering you an opportunity to learn things you will use for the rest of your career. BP has experience, wisdom, and contacts. Treat him with respect. Seize this opportunity and make the most of it.
posted by islandeady at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2015
If the grant deadline is in two weeks and you haven't started, um, you aren't going to get this done in time. You usually need to get the costings approved by finance, various departmental heads need to sign it off...
Yeah, I'm really really sorry to add this, but for example, our Office of Sponsored Programs wants a full one-week review period for any grant they are submitting on your behalf. You should count on having one week in hand, not two.
I like the idea above - do as much as you can but submit a much better version again at the next deadline.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:00 AM on March 13, 2015
Yeah, I'm really really sorry to add this, but for example, our Office of Sponsored Programs wants a full one-week review period for any grant they are submitting on your behalf. You should count on having one week in hand, not two.
I like the idea above - do as much as you can but submit a much better version again at the next deadline.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:00 AM on March 13, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
(I think now you can let your boss know you're having some difficulty with the subject matter, but you are doing your best. Ask if he knows someone else who may be able to help you with the parts where you lack knowledge.)
posted by frumiousb at 12:26 AM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]