Outdated Grant Portals Burn Junior Faculty Time
Academic faculty, particularly junior faculty, experience significant frustration and wasted time navigating complex grant submission processes. These processes are often hampered by inflexible, outdated systems (OSPR) and a lack of coordination between faculty and institutional support staff, leading to errors, rejections, and a feeling of powerlessness. The rigid nature of these systems stifles innovation and slows down research progress.
SOURCES (60)
“Early-career researcher here, recently finished my PhD. I had an arrangement with a university abroad to apply for a competitive early-career grant through them as potential hosts. Their internal deadline for reviewing my draft was in a few days; the official deadline is about a…”
“I went through summer programs, competitions and research opportunities one at a time, opening each program's actual official page instead of trusting a listicle. I wanted the real application deadlines. Here's the thing nobody says out loud: it's August, and almost nothing has been announced yet. Of 22 programs I checked, exactly 3 have a posted date for the next cycle. Most of the "2027 deadlines" floating around are last year's dates copy-pasted forward. So here'”
“8 months of rigorous PhD proposal back and forth 7 months of scholarship hunt and a positive response today. Maharashtra State Government scholarship (India) mail. Not sure if this is the final approval or there are any other stages to it but fingers crossed 🤞in hope of this being it. I need the restlessness to end. submitted by /u/Kitchen-Bee-1317 [link] [comments]”
“hello everyone-- i'm working on the UCLA "most scholarly project" secondary, and i am apart of 2 research opportunities. One I've listed as 1400 hours and is my biological lab. I've written about it in LENGTH in my primary, in my PS and most meaningful activity, and I literally do not want to rehash it all over again. My second research opportunity is statistical research, only 250 hours listed, but I have a second author publication and it means more to me in a community-f”
“Title. Anyone approved yet? I applied for it the hour it was released. submitted by /u/notgonnafail1505 [link] [comments]”
“Really just any general help tips to secure through the university versus SSHRC funding. Thanks! And please be nice/helpful if you comment below 🙏 💙 submitted by /u/damaskdoe13 [link] [comments]”
“I work at a small startup and we collaborated with a couple professors on writing a grant proposal that we submitted a few months ago. Unfortunately i will have to leave this job soon since the company is running out of money. Would it be weird if I reached out to one of them asking if they knew anyone in industry hiring/connecting me to a company? I know he’s pretty well connected but idk if it’s appropriate. Thanks submitted by /u/ToadBoehly [link] [comments]”
“Partway through a PhD and the project has drifted noticeably from where it started, which seems normal, but the drift is getting substantial enough that the original framing feels almost irrelevant now. The methodological angle has shifted, the theoretical grounding has changed, and some of the foundational literature I spent the first year on barely comes up anymore. Supervisors are fine with it and the new direction is genuinely more interesting, but there's a nagging question about how th”
“My proposal has been stuck in the pending queue with no status update for going on 8 months now; is this happening to anyone else? submitted by /u/ningbao [link] [comments]”
“It's most grad students in some subjects. The grant isn't in their name, it's in the advisor's name.”
“Just realized that my application wasn’t fully assigned to programs 🤯🤯 Just submitted to hospice palliative programs, but am I already at a disadvantage :/ submitted by /u/Fit_Future7613 [link] [comments]”
“behavioral econ postdoc here. Just spent the last four hours trying to clean a dataset from a premium survey panel we paid thousands of grant dollars for, and I honestly just want to lay on the floor The open-ended responses are blatantly generative text. one participant literally left "as an ai language model" in their justification for a risk-tolerance question. Our IRB has made in-person lab studies incredibly tedious to get approved post-2020, so we are heavily reliant on these onl”
“I have spoken to and interviewed several PhDs in math/robotics/CS, yet not one said they worked on something that was truly important for their field. I understand you're beholden to your current PI/institution, but if there was an alternative, what would you wish it was instead? submitted by /u/Basic-Exercise9922 [link] [comments]”
“A new status date and still pending. Usually means doom. Given the funding environment, I wasn't exactly expecting good news, but still sucks. There are basically no funding sources for my research now. I miss being able to win things sometimes, ya know? submitted by /u/econhistoryrules [link] [comments]”
“i had 2 proposals for cccc2027 on college writing research but now that ncte decided to get rid of it, I'm worried about finding a place to share my research and meet other scholars in my field. MLA has never really been for me. Even looking at it now, none of my work really fits into their panels which are mostly lit. However I see they're still accepting just in time panels. Any other former CCCC members thinking about moving your proposals over to MLA or trying to organize a panel mor”
“Got an email today saying majority of my letters of rec are not recieved. Doesn't make sense because here were my steps that I did through interfolio and how I was instructed. P.S. I submitted 4 letters of rec to TMDSAS because of the limit and 6 to both AACOMAS and AAMCAS. Waited for all my professors uploaded their letters onto interfolio (All in by May) Get the interfolio membership thingy or whatever to use the letter uploading service (end of may when submitting apps). Pay like 60 bucks”
“The main thing is my current university does not even have a ece program and no profs. i have been mostly carrying my research with my remote advisor and been aiming for some top conferences of my field. But yet to get success. Most prolly i will be applying to ASU , University of minnesota , University of florida and the likes. Top univs are out of reach for me sadly My profile: Undergrad 3.92 gpa , local no name state university My research is on ML for Chip design and VLSI. I do have some res”
“I’ve had to embark on another round of data collection for my qualitative dissertation. My original goal was to graduate this winter but now it looks like spring may be a more realistic option. I’m still shooting for December due to deteriorating mental health, largely because of my program. I work full time in research and am very stressed. Words of wisdom? Advice? submitted by /u/Secure_Pain4335 [link] [comments]”
“Hello everyone, Unfortunately, I wasn’t awarded Cambridge Trust funding, so I’m now relying on an overseas scholarship from my government. The challenge is that the scholarship timeline doesn’t align with Cambridge’s admissions timeline, and the final results may not be announced until October or November 2026. In this situation, would it be possible to defer my start to the Lent Term? Has anyone successfully done this, particularly where the delay was due to the timeline of an external governme”
“I’m writing this because I honestly don’t know if what I’m feeling is just my personal frustration after a painful experience, or if it is something many academics experience. I recently applied for a permanent academic position in Spain (Assistant Professor level). I ended up second, and what has really devastated me is not simply losing the position, but the way the evaluation system seems to work. I have always been aware that academia is not a perfectly meritocratic system. I know that netwo”
“Hi everyone! I've passed my PhD with minor corrections, and now I'm writing up manuscripts and conference abstract. I have run my abstract with my supervisors and co-authors, they didn't give any comments on it. I submitted to the conference because deadline is approaching, so technically its under review but unpublished. I was wondering if I should send the same abstract to a potential postdoc supervisor because they wanted to have a preview of my PhD work. Any advice would be very”
“Hey there. Wasn’t sure where to post this, but we are both PhD candidates *in a STEM field and this program is run from our academic faculty/school. Not in the US. I co-lead an outreach program with a colleague in my lab (Fin). We are supervised by a full-time academic staff member (George), and we are paid to do this. High school students work with us to learn about specific concepts in our field that must tie back to their curricula, with the goal of expanding the program to run more frequentl”
“I am in dilemma if I should take up a full time job, a 9 to 5, with long and difficult commute or focus on submitting my thesis. My funding has ended. Although I can support myself but only for a few months. Working on thesis completion would be difficult with a full time job commitment and the added stress. How did you manage? submitted by /u/Pillar-Instinct [link] [comments]”
“This is so difficult... the technical writing... the narrative... the value proposition... sounding like I know enough but not sounding too esoteric and "academic"... I have like 20 pages to write, but honestly sometimes I will spend literally like HOURS just writing a few sentences. Oh and finding a citation to support that sentence? That might take another whole hour! I feel my writing in my PhD has just gotten so... slow? I remember in undergrad I used to blast through essays like i”
“I am a Ph.D. student working on writing a proposal for an F31 grant, and I'm trying to find out if anyone has been in a similar situation and might be willing to share anything about your experience: tips, tricks, etc. I do not come from an academic background or field. After undergrad, I immediately started working. After working for several years, I decided to go back to school to get a Ph.D. I do not have a master's degree; I was admitted straight to the Ph.D. program. I have now fini”
“Political Science. Research on migration and refugees. Any advice appreciated submitted by /u/Potential-Net6313 [link] [comments]”
“Just venting... I'm finishing my PhD in Western Europe and will defend it in a couple of weeks. I have 5 publications in respectable journals in my field, yet I wasn't able to secure funding for a postdoc in mainland Europe or the UK for the next academic year. At this stage, many fellowships seem to expect applicants to already have a book contract based on their thesis. And I can't realistically apply for professorships because I'm not competitive yet. Meanwhile, my boyfriend&#”
“Hey I just got accepted into Rise Research, but the problem is it’s 2000-2500$ to publish a paper. Which seems like an odd price because well why isn’t it free? Does anyone know how I can pay for smth wayyyy less like 500$ max or even free? I’ve alr tried to email a billion professors submitted by /u/pinkturtle33 [link] [comments]”
“It’s probably not a popular opinion, but I’ve been on enough programs in my career that I’m a firm believer in designating an allocation (~10% of a resource’s time, not full time) role for program/project “historian” - someone who’s responsibility is to maintain Project reference documentation (which will help onboarding resources faster as the project ages) Maintaining cleanliness of repositories e.g. Sharepoint, Confluence, etc… (those of you who’ve been part of programs/projects know how unwi”
“I am writing a project proposal for an important national grant for early career researchers, it's my first postdoc experience right after PhD. I have a project, discussed together with my mentor, and an idea. I was thinking to ask for an important company in my field (plant science and agriculture) for collaboration, it will give higher chances to get the grant and to reach what we aim within this project. They would provide some instrumentation in exchange of co-authorship (the data would”
“Sorry if this is too much of a rant. I’m a PhD candidate in my final year, and I want to ask whether my experience is meant to have been this bad: My research is in the humanities, specifically one of the arts, but it has quite a heavy lean towards technology (programming, fabrication, design, etc), so it would be considered a practice led research. This already likely makes my work more of an outlier, but the closer I get to submission, the more I feel totally underprepared for life after my Ph”
“You don’t If working 60 hrs a week - there are others things that probably need attention in your life that are more important”
“For those who graduated please tell us there is a positive aspect to earning so little for few years :) The struggle is real. I know it’s worth it, just need reassurance. I know the PhD years fly by. I’m entering my second year. submitted by /u/Wrong_Attempt4432 [link] [comments]”
“Cool, but hard to understand if you ever needed someone on an art granting committee to see your cv and actually understand what you do”
“This is a subtle distinction, but the National Science Foundation explains it directly in its applicant guide “Research 101 for Engineers” (NSF, America’s Seed Fund). You can Google it, I didn't want to put the link and get the post taken down. Sharing because I found this super helpful. I've definitely fallen into this trap in the past. submitted by /u/grantboost [link] [comments]”
“Hi, I'm a Doctoral Candidate on an MSCA Doctoral Network (Horizon Europe) project, and I've been going back and forth for the past 5+ months trying to sort out my family allowance, and I'm curious if this is a common issue or if my case is unusual. Quick background: I'm married and relocated to Norway with my spouse, so I'm eligible for the family allowance. Here's the issue — I've been given three different figures for what the allowance should be: My Grant Agreement”
“Hi, I'm a Doctoral Candidate on an MSCA Doctoral Network (Horizon Europe) project, and I've been going back and forth for the past 5+ months trying to sort out my family allowance, and I'm curious if this is a common issue or if my case is unusual. Quick background: I'm married and relocated to Norway with my spouse, so I'm eligible for the family allowance. Here's the issue — I've been given three different figures for what the allowance should be: My Grant Agreement”
“Long story short, I’m a senior in my PhD program and my friend in the same lab as me is just entering the program this last year. We applied to pretty much all the same grants over the past year, and they have pretty much gotten every grant they applied for while I have gotten none. I know a lot of that probably falls on me for not writing a good enough proposal, and I do feel happy for my fellow grad student for their success, but I can’t help but just feel incredibly inadequate given how much”
“Hi all, I’m in a very frustrating situation and would really appreciate outside perspectives from PIs, RAs, lab managers, HR staff, or anyone familiar with UK university bureaucracy. Tl;dr: I completed almost 3 months of highly technical predoc research assistant work for one of the Oxbridge uni based lab, based on an initial verbal assurance that the work would be covered by an RA contract and paid. I also later received written (email) confirmation that the RA contracts would be processed. How”
“I was thrust into leading a grant I have been getting paid on due to the previous PI resigning (and being completely MIA). In April, I sent all the “new PI“ stuff to the grants office. It is a sub award under a larger university. They tell me, “we don’t have a signed agreement”. I talk to the other university and they say everything was sent already. Grants dept says we don’t have it, they need to send us a new one. But that won’t have your name, so let’s focus on getting you setup as PI. NIH ne”
“Submitted last Sept. Have waited for 10 months but still pending. I am wondering if anyone has any updates. PS: For NSF CDSE proposal last year, the director asks for abstract. Hope this is a good signal. submitted by /u/superghostt [link] [comments]”
“I start my first, large, externally funded research project here in a couple of weeks. I am so grateful for the opportunity considering the funding project but the other half of me is terrified. All I can think about is what can go wrong. While we’ve worked hard to put together SOPs and go through the details, I still imagine the worst. What if everything is a giant failure? My therapist asks me whats the worst thing that can happen if it does fail and i waiver between “Thats science” and “Every”
“I have been struggling with writing a SOP and faculty interest letters because I do not care what sub discipline in my field I study. Obviously, this looks bad for applications. I have two thought processes here. 1) I have not had a chance to see every subdiscipline in my field. I have research experience in 2 different areas, I enjoyed both equally. I have shadowed in other fields, I enjoyed those as well. I know I will adapt to where ever I end up, I think this is an advantage bc I’m flexible”
“I’m a postdoc in Europe working in computer science. I get along very well with my PI, and he has told me he would definitely keep me if funding comes through, but right now it’s unclear whether he can secure the budget. I’ve also applied for several fellowships myself, and I’m still waiting for the results. Because everything is uncertain, I started applying for faculty positions about half a year ago. So far, I’ve applied to 40 positions. I’ve only been invited to one online interview (which w”