The Grant Site Visit

I attended a PhD Thesis defense the other day which made me think about a recent grant site visit.

I am a PI on a reasonably large federal grant to support efforts to increase the numbers of underrepresented groups in the sciences.  As part of the review of our renewal we had a site visit from said federal agency.  Having never participated in one of these it was interesting.

Of course we got ourselves into panic mode as the day of the visit came closer.  We scrutinized our grant to the point were we had analyzed every flaw and cursed ourselves for the poor job we did on in the planning and writing.  We were pretty sure they would hand us our heads.

And then site visit day came.  The panelists ensconced themselves in a conference room to be visited by the PIs, current students, former students, the outside evaluators, administration officials, etc.  At the end of the day the PIs assembled before them again for final questions.

The thing was, there was no blood bath, and all those questionable issues that we were sure would sink our grant didn't.  The questions asked were reasonable and sometimes even a bit unexpected, but nothing that we could not handle.  We knew all the details of what we wrote and why (pretty good for a grant with three PIs but in which six people contributed material), and all the pros and the cons.  

In the end I came to view the site visit team as I advise my students to view the audience at a talk or a thesis committee.  Their job is to be skeptical, but behind that, they are rooting for you, so just recognize that you are the expert in the room and show them what you know.

As I sat in the thesis defense I found myself thinking that seminars, grants, papers and thesis defenses are all the same. Although, as Marie Curie put it, "There are sadistic scientists who hasten to hunt down error instead of establishing truth.", reviewers do hope you will excite their intellect with your work and will reward you accordingly when you do.

T. S. Hall

P.S. I am happy to report that our score on the grant was below 200, suggesting that we will get the funding.