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Jun. 30th, 2010 02:25 pmI feel queasy every time I log in to eRA Commons, the NIH electronic research administration website.
I am waiting to find out when the study section will meet to peer-review my grant application. I was expecting them to meet in July; for AIDS proposals, which are on an expedited review cycle, the study section usually meets two months after the applications are due. But here it is June 30th, and the date of the study section meeting hasn't even been posted yet. (That's what I keep logging in to check.) So we might be talking about August instead.
I've written before about how peer review works for NIH grants. It's hard to exaggerate the stakes this time. My proposal is a resubmission of the proposal I submitted in January. This is my last chance to get this proposal funded. If it doesn't make the cut, I'll need to start over with a whole new idea.
I am not sure how long my institution would continue to keep me around if that happened. I am in a "soft money" position - required to bring in grants to cover my salary. If my grant gets passed over, which is what happens to most grants, I'll be in a very precarious position.
I am waiting for them to post the date of the study section meeting. Then I'll wait until the meeting happens. A few days after that, my score will be posted and I will probably know what I need to know. There will still be exciting waiting after that; the NIMH Council meets to discuss the reviewed grants and pick those to be funded according to their own priorities. Those priorities can sometimes be mysterious. But my score itself will say a lot, and after I get my score and summary statement I can call my NIMH Project Officer.
So every time I log in to eRA Commons I feel queasy. I keep expecting to log on, hit "status," select my proposal title, and see the word UNSCORED. Total washout. Even though I know that my reviewers haven't even met yet, that's the image in my head every single time I log in.
I am waiting to find out when the study section will meet to peer-review my grant application. I was expecting them to meet in July; for AIDS proposals, which are on an expedited review cycle, the study section usually meets two months after the applications are due. But here it is June 30th, and the date of the study section meeting hasn't even been posted yet. (That's what I keep logging in to check.) So we might be talking about August instead.
I've written before about how peer review works for NIH grants. It's hard to exaggerate the stakes this time. My proposal is a resubmission of the proposal I submitted in January. This is my last chance to get this proposal funded. If it doesn't make the cut, I'll need to start over with a whole new idea.
I am not sure how long my institution would continue to keep me around if that happened. I am in a "soft money" position - required to bring in grants to cover my salary. If my grant gets passed over, which is what happens to most grants, I'll be in a very precarious position.
I am waiting for them to post the date of the study section meeting. Then I'll wait until the meeting happens. A few days after that, my score will be posted and I will probably know what I need to know. There will still be exciting waiting after that; the NIMH Council meets to discuss the reviewed grants and pick those to be funded according to their own priorities. Those priorities can sometimes be mysterious. But my score itself will say a lot, and after I get my score and summary statement I can call my NIMH Project Officer.
So every time I log in to eRA Commons I feel queasy. I keep expecting to log on, hit "status," select my proposal title, and see the word UNSCORED. Total washout. Even though I know that my reviewers haven't even met yet, that's the image in my head every single time I log in.
