Grants!

15 page grant number 2 submitted today!!

Short grant number 1 rejected yesterday. But it's not what I really wanted to do right now anyway.

The first 15 page grant I wrote is still out; that's the one I really want.

I also am waiting to hear on a small internal grant I wrote (short grant number 2) that I haven't heard back about. I was co-PI on a preproposal that didn't go through related to that also. And I need to submit something in the fall related to this.

Also soon I'll be in for a small percent on another 15 page proposal, (I suppose that already went through internal competition, but that doesn't really count). In the fall, I need to write one for myself to go with that also.

Someone wrote my name on a little internal thing also (at their location, not mine), but without talking to me first, so I don't think that really counts in terms of grant writing. That was slightly related to something else I need to write; the call is not out but I think it will be due only a couple of months after the call comes (which will be soon).

Over the year I met with industry people three different times about different things; one is part of a larger project that I don't know about yet, the other two didn't go anywhere (though one of those might go somewhere eventually). I also have another industry thing I need to discuss with people next week.

Also coming up in the fall, I may write something that's related to some of the possible industry things.

Totals:
External proposals as PI: 3 total, 1 rejected, 2 still out.
Internal proposals as PI: 1, still out.
Preproposals: co-PI on 1, did not go forward.
Internal competitions to write proposals: co-PI on 1, went forward, due soon; sort of PI on 1, in that I got past this hurdle automatically and without submitting anything because it was past the deadline and nobody else did it.
Meetings to discuss industry funding or the potential writing of proposals: a whole lot.
Shaking hands with people whether or not they are directly related to potential funding: really a whole lot; some weeks, this takes most of my time (where shaking hands is defined broadly).

Drafts to be submitted: co-PI on 1.
Proposals I need to write by myself soon: 1.
Proposals that I am thinking about writing for the fall: 3 (all regarding specific collaborators, on 1 I would be PI on the others I might be).
Unfunded proposals that I could potentially resubmit in the future with some changes: 1.

I thought this (meaning, spending so much time grant writing) would be more frustrating, but actually writing the proposal does make me think through the plan and it does seem like I'm "doing science" while I write these. Actually, this feeling was only salient for the ones I wrote with my postdoc because of the good discussions, atmosphere of collaboration, and resulting thought about science; the others were soul-sucking to some extent as I expected. Even so, sometimes it feels like I'm not getting science done. At least my group is starting to do that for me.

I do have two non-proposal things I'm really itching to do. One is to think about some theoretical stuff I want to do that's related to my own postdoc advisor and my current postdoc and also to my prior work (slightly) and that will place me in a good spot to do what I really want to do next (the first 15 page proposal). The second is the hobby scale thing--that hasn't gotten enough of my time and I really want to do it!

Also I should probably spend some time with the kids or something, but they are getting really good at playing productively by themselves. Maybe I should just keep leaving them alone more (meaning the same amount as I have been while proposal writing) and that will be good for both sides.