It Sounded Like a Good Idea

The new, shorter forms from NIH may not be all they're cracked up to be, says The Scientist. With fewer pages to make their case for their work, better, more experienced writers may have an edge, not the young investigators the shorter forms are supposed to help. "[The new grant applications] are going to focus people's words, and I do think it will favor better writers," says the University of Pennsylvania Robert Kalb, who adds that "it frees the experienced investigator to not provide as much feasibility and preliminary data because they can just cite their previous publications."