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  • xkcd: Asking Scientists Questions

    From Lynn McGuire@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 6 14:00:35 2022
    XPost: rec.arts.sf.written

    xkcd: Asking Scientists Questions
    https://xkcd.com/2655/

    Yup, filling out grant applications all the time must be horrible.

    Explained at:

    https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2655:_Asking_Scientists_Questions

    Lynn

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  • From Dave Van Domelen@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Aug 7 16:52:40 2022
    XPost: rec.arts.sf.written

    In article <tcmdol$1obj$[email protected]>,
    Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:
    xkcd: Asking Scientists Questions
    https://xkcd.com/2655/

    Yup, filling out grant applications all the time must be horrible.

    Yeah, it's pretty bad. Other than the little "$500 in travel expenses through your institution" grants, we're not talking about filling out a few pages of forms. A serious grant application is basically a book's worth of content, loads of accounting crap, and generally a huge amount of work that
    is NOT what you got into science for. The bigger and more successful
    research groups can afford to hire someone trained in paperwork stuff to do that (and they'll be paid from the grant), but the vast majority of
    scientists need to take time away from going science to do paperwork so they can have the money to do the science they no longer have time to do.

    Dave Van Domelen, and then there's the scientists who have to give up a week or two sorting through all the grant applications and deciding which
    ones to fund, which isn't exactly a desirable job.

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  • From Mark Jackson@21:1/5 to Dave Van Domelen on Sun Aug 7 13:14:42 2022
    XPost: rec.arts.sf.written

    On 8/7/2022 12:52 PM, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
    In article <tcmdol$1obj$[email protected]>, Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:
    xkcd: Asking Scientists Questions https://xkcd.com/2655/

    Yup, filling out grant applications all the time must be horrible.

    Yeah, it's pretty bad. Other than the little "$500 in travel
    expenses through your institution" grants, we're not talking about
    filling out a few pages of forms. A serious grant application is
    basically a book's worth of content, loads of accounting crap, and
    generally a huge amount of work that is NOT what you got into science
    for. The bigger and more successful research groups can afford to
    hire someone trained in paperwork stuff to do that (and they'll be
    paid from the grant), but the vast majority of scientists need to
    take time away from going science to do paperwork so they can have
    the money to do the science they no longer have time to do.

    My last post-doc was in a 4- or 5-member materials science group; the
    senior professor spent almost all his time hustling for money (and
    seemed happy to do so). Lucky guy I suppose; I wouldn't have been able
    to do that.

    Not the only, or even the major, reason I happily took a technology
    development job in industry, but it made leaving academia easier.

    --
    Mark Jackson - https://mark-jackson.online/
    There's no nondestructive test
    for indestructibility. - Randall Munroe

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