So it has been another long dry spell for JBSayWhat.com. As empty as your collective lives must be without your dose of everything me, imagine how I must feel having the weight of all those expectations dashed at my feet, like so many shards of broken mirror images of what can only be likened to running into an iceberg of longing near the corner of desire. I could claim that my lack of communication was the result of my being away for intensive metaphor training, but I suspect the previous sentence would call into question either the existence of such training, or, more likely, my attendance.
Why can’t I just come out and say what the real reason for my hiatus has been? The fact is that the reason is just too painful for me to say out loud. So forgive me as I gird what passes for my loins to say: “It is Obama’s fault.”
I thought I would feel better having gotten that off my chest, but I am still in agony. As has been clear from almost my first blog entry, there aren’t many people who are bigger fanboys of the current president. While I wasn’t the first person on his bandwagon, I was earlier than many of my friends and colleagues. He ran a damn near flawless campaign, and, for the most part, I have been pleased with his presidency. But I wouldn’t be honest with myself, and more importantly, my readers, if I didn’t come clean when he messes up my life.
I have written before Obama’s clear affection for science. He admires reason and thoughtfulness, and is clearly someone who using the scientific method in his decision processes. More to the point, he has immediately started supporting science in a big way. How big? How about 10 Billion (with a B) dollars for NIH to spend over the next 2 years as part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
And there lies the rub. Because of this stimulus to the NIH, pre-existing grant programs have been bolstered significantly, and new programs are springing up all over the place. What this means for someone who, like your faithful correspondent, is dependent on NIH grants to fund his research is that, to quote our ancestors, “there’s gold in them thar hills.” In practice, that means that I would be completely remiss in my fiduciary responsibilities to the lab if I didn’t apply to every possible grant mechanism that I can.
And I have. I have submitted a grant for a shared instrument (fancy microscope), where I had to coordinate information from 10 of my colleagues, and then write a reasonable rationale as to how it will benefit all our research. When that was done, I was alerted to the ARRA Administrative Supplements, where individuals who have been awarded grants (like myself) can write a small proposal for up to $100K/year for 2 years in order speed along the ongoing research. The idea is to use this money to hire more people and/or buy new equipment that will help the investigator better fulfill the aims of his/her current grant, and stimulate the economy as well. These supplements are not reviewed as a normal grant would be—by a panel of peers—but are being handled at the administrative level at NIH.
The bottom line is that a grant awardee would be foolish not to apply for one of these supplements. It is a relatively small amount of work for a potentially nice reward. The bad news is that basically means that everyone who has a grant is going to apply for one of these, and as a result the chances of getting one are about as poor as getting a normal competitive grant. But the odds have never stopped me before, and I forged ahead and submitted my supplement on Friday.
Does the grant writing end there? Not bloody likely. I’ve already identified another new program that is right up our alley, and so that will be on the agenda for the July deadline. This is on top of a competitive renewal of another grant that I’ll be targeting for the October submission date.
And that’s not all. While all the grant writing was going on, one of our bigger proposals was being reviewed for the last time (up until recently, you got three chances at getting a grant). The good news is that it was reviewed quite favorably, and we are reasonably sure that it will get funded. What this meant was that I had to immediately begin the hiring process. You might imagine that in this economy that there might be more than few soon-to-be-college graduates that would be interested in the 4 positions we are advertising. You’d be right.
So in sum, because of Obama, I have had to write 2 grants and hire 4 people in the past 3 weeks. That guy is killing by blog cred. I am sure that I can learn to forgive him at some point. But as I sit here composing this somewhere over the Atlantic, I am reminded that one should be careful what you wish for.
