A bit of unexpected cheer.
Jan. 5th, 2011 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaLast month I was contacted by an NIH official asking me if I would do him a big favor by serving on a special review panel for a single grant application. I am not a fool, so I said that I would be delighted.
(In the first place, why on earth would any scientist working in an area funded by NIH not want to do a reasonable and ethical favor for NIH program staff? But in the second place, my external mentor has strongly encouraged that I try to get on NIH review panels because it will help me understand what grant reviewers are looking for and how they treat applications.)
So I said yes. I read and reviewed the grant proposal. I was assigned as the fourth reviewer, and when I uploaded my critique I was considerably relieved to find that my scores were in line with the other three reviewers; I hasn't missed anything. I enjoyed the phone meeting at which we all discussed the application and settled our final scores. All in all, it was an extremely educational experience, which I think will help me next time I have a grant to submit.
So I was blown away to open my e-mail this morning and find an e-mail from NIH which begins: "Thank you very much for serving as a reviewer for CSR peer review meeting for [information deleted]. According to our records, you should receive ($200.00) for honorarium..."
Holy shit! They pay me for that?! They pay me for that, at what works out to a rate of $100 an hour? That thing I thought I was doing for free, and enjoyed, and found beneficial?
The best part is that it's an "honorarium," not salary reimbursement. That means that it goes directly into my pocket, instead of to the university to help cover my salary. Awesome.
(In the first place, why on earth would any scientist working in an area funded by NIH not want to do a reasonable and ethical favor for NIH program staff? But in the second place, my external mentor has strongly encouraged that I try to get on NIH review panels because it will help me understand what grant reviewers are looking for and how they treat applications.)
So I said yes. I read and reviewed the grant proposal. I was assigned as the fourth reviewer, and when I uploaded my critique I was considerably relieved to find that my scores were in line with the other three reviewers; I hasn't missed anything. I enjoyed the phone meeting at which we all discussed the application and settled our final scores. All in all, it was an extremely educational experience, which I think will help me next time I have a grant to submit.
So I was blown away to open my e-mail this morning and find an e-mail from NIH which begins: "Thank you very much for serving as a reviewer for CSR peer review meeting for [information deleted]. According to our records, you should receive ($200.00) for honorarium..."
Holy shit! They pay me for that?! They pay me for that, at what works out to a rate of $100 an hour? That thing I thought I was doing for free, and enjoyed, and found beneficial?
The best part is that it's an "honorarium," not salary reimbursement. That means that it goes directly into my pocket, instead of to the university to help cover my salary. Awesome.
