Today, at 4:15, I finally submitted the Grant With No Deadline.
Or, more accurately, the grant that had no deadline...
no deadline...
no deadline...
no deadline...
for months, and then suddenly HAD to be submitted WITHIN A WEEK or else the world would END!!!
Regular readers will know that I go a little... eccentric when grant time comes around, and this time was no exception*. I also got rather paranoid when I realised that the process of assembling all the component parts of the grant (various forms and letters with original signatures, scanned documents, Word files, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint figures, published manuscripts, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ethics certificates, the Magna Carta, CVs, and the PIs' world cup picks) into the final version** was going to spill over from Saturday's epic day in the office into Monday, and felt the need to protect my work so far:
(names hidden to protect the innocent my job).
Well, it's done now, and I can finally
Although I do like to whine when I have weeks like this last one, the coolness of the science in the grants I work on does help to mitigate the stress and the craziness. When I took this job I knew there would be times like this - but I had times like that in my old job, too, and I prefer it now that I get stressed over interesting and important things that I actually care about.
As I like to remind myself, my job (and maybe any job in academia) aint perfect on the micro level, but the macro level is pretty sweet.
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*Twitter is perfect for this kind of silliness.
**a CD and two hard copies. Seriously.
It's a g-RANT about a GRRRR-ant! Sudden deadlines should be outlawed, disemvoweled, or something equally condemming!
ReplyDeleteGah. I am dialing up for a grant that will need to be submitted as a PDF... with bookmarks. I have never authored such a thing. While I suspect it's dead simple, I also suspect that it won't work at all the first few times I try it.
ReplyDeleteArgh.
P.S. You, I am almost certain, know which granting agency this will be for. One with 192 grant registrations, recently.
Silver Fox, no kidding! I don't mind them so much when I know they're coming and can work backwards to develop a time line. Stealth deadlines are no fun at all.
ReplyDeleteEco, thanks!
Ricardipus, good luck with that! Hopefully the application guide will be helpful (HAHAHAHAHA).
Hard copies are such a pain. I had problems with the printer AND the scanner yesterday. And then my CD drive wouldn't work. I didn't know this, because I hadn't ever had to burn a CD before in my 2.5 years in this job.
Cath> sounds great :)
ReplyDeleteOh Gods, I've got a grant with no deadline to sort out too. I need to email someone about it. Bum ,I should get to work rather than piss around on twitter.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it like 10pm there? Surely it can wait until morning...
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the grant. I'm looking forward to the next one having an actual proper deadline.
Chall, which part?!
ah... to be honest, I dunno know (been a rough day here) - the getting it in part?! I'd hate the no dead line concept, it makes it hard to stress other people a lot....
ReplyDelete"no deadline...
ReplyDeletefor months, and then suddenly HAD to be submitted WITHIN A WEEK or else the world would END!!!"
Ha ha! It seems everyone I know who assists PIs in grant applications has some variant on this complaint. Like the grant that the group of PIs suddenly decided to apply for 3 WEEKS before the deadline!!! Or the PIs who have known about a grant deadline for months, but don't let the administrators/official science writer/editor/coordinator know anything about it until the last minute. I had to listen to a rant on this topic during happy hour at out institute the other day... and all I could think was, "I'm sooo glad I'm not in that boat right now!"
Congrats on surviving, Cath. On to the next round now =)
heh, yeah, there's always a next round!
ReplyDelete