QFT

Lorsch:

Lorsch says that he knows first-hand that Generation X scientists are not whiners: “I do not hear complaining from the people who are trying to get their first grant or renew their first grant, the people trying to get a lab running,” he says. “It’s the really well-funded people who’ve lost one of their grants — that’s who call me and scream.”

What if it were about deserve?

Imagine that the New Investigator status (no prior service as PI of major NIH grant) required an extra timeline document? This would be a chronology of the PI’s program to date with emphasis on funding (startup, institutional grants, foundation), how publications were generated, and the PI’s scrambling. Another part would focus on grants submitted, score outcomes, revisions, how preliminary data was generated, etc.

Would this improve the way the NIH awards grants?

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(Keep in mind the NIH has wrung its hands about the dismal fate of the not-yet-funded for many decades and created numerous “fixes” over the years.)