======= Date Modified 11 21 2010 19:21:54 =======
I'm annoyed! I put in for a small grant to cover some travel costs for my research. I got an email today saying I didn't get it- I'm not too bothered, I know it's competitive and it isn't really going to cause me a major problem in any way, so that's fine. But I was given some 'feedback' on my application which really annoyed me because it was complete rubbish! There was criticism for not including a power calculation which I wasn't asked to include- the reviewer had decided that the power would be too low for the proposed statistics- actually we did the power calcuation and we have more than enough participants! Okay, I suppose I should have put the calculation in in hindsight, but there was no section or question asking for it! More irritating, the application was criticised for not having an outline of my research questions- there were four of them, bullet-pointed, with the heading 'research questions'! I mean???? I not narked because I didn't get the funding (well I suppose I am just a little bit lol) but it would feel better if I at least thought they had read the application properly! Anyway, rant over. Just needed a rant. Have a good weekend all, I'm looking forward to the footie! Best, KB

Never mind Keenbean-there will be other bigger and better grants...Just a thought- they probably didn't think of the power calculation either which was why they didn't ask for it but when looking at a multitude of grants, they have to award them to only one person (or a few groups or whatever) and the one that got it probably had a power calculation, so later when they were letting people know the news, they used this as a justification to some extent.

As in 'well the one we awarded the grant, had blah and blah and blah (even though we didn't ask for it) and maybe if you had done this...for next time, etc".
So you get this information in the feedback. Hindsight is always a marvellous thing isn't it?