Don't Wait Your Turn

One of DrugMonkey's readers relayed a bit of a situation. The reader is working on an R01 but a colleague who sits on a study section told the reader to "definitely wait two years so [the reader] can get things rolling before applying." DrugMonkey says that is nonsensical advice and that R01 funding is needed to get and keep a lab working and that waiting around isn't going to accomplish much. That little bit of extra preliminary data is not really going to affect your chance of receiving funding -- going through multiple grant cycles is common and other factors, such as reviewers' interest, also affect awards. DrugMonkey suspects this may be a case of bias against new PIs. "Strategically, I would say that if you just give up and accept this, there is zero chance of getting your award. If you submit anyway, at least you have a nonzero chance of someone like me being on the panel and arguing against this unjustified bias/tradition," he writes.