Looking forward to having you back!

That is the way. Was fun!

I got an email from my SRO today that we are rescheduling our study section that was canceled last week and are now coordinating schedules. The earliest date allowed for us to meet is March 25.

Glad to see Hening is well integrated.

Depressing...
"PI's on five-year grants looking to extend their funding ..“That may be what is not going forward for review or for council,.. “So if you’re that PI, you’re going to have to start seriously thinking about laying off staff, because you won’t have the funds to pay them.”

Maybe the IDC model could be altered but not by a Friday night notice, but through a thoughtful data-driven discussion, versus cherry picked statements which don’t seem like they would hold up to peer review. Perhaps other scientists have thoughts.

Comparison to private foundations who have their own funding streams seems to be misguided. The comparison to prior statements saying what Universities would be willing to accept is also misguided, as that is done on an ad hoc basis and not for the entire funding portfolio.

The recent NIH IDC notice seems meant to be a stick in the eye of academic institutions. IDC’s are negotiated rates to do science covering both administrative burden (which has a capped rate) as well as the cost to keep the lights on and support our personnel.

For those of us who no longer get to enjoy the romance of being at the bench doing the science, the grant proposal is a critical necessity for being forced to do the deep thinking about the direction and implementation of our scientific ideas. Without this external pressure creativity will stagnate

For my 3-4 weeks of work, + 2 full 8 hour days of zoom review, I am reimbursed $400 by the federal government. That’s quite a bargain! A small perk, is I get to hang out with the brilliant minds across the country a couple times a year, which admittedly is a high point.