I’m on a Zoom workshop on advice & planning re. a new round of grant offerings. Taking notes as we go…

My initial concerns / issues:

  1. Thinking big enough. Thinking beyond my particular agenda as an individual faculty member. I could use coaching in…“thinking (big) grant-ish-ly”. Thinking like a “Director” instead of a “research beetle.”

  2. Institutional support/interest. You’d think free money would be welcome, but… B2C2 seemed to be almost an inconvenience administratively, locally, b/c [a particular university] doesn’t handle grants well. It all still went on our already-overworked college admin assistant’s workload. (Note: they just said hiring admin support is allowed/included in these grants.) I recall [math prof] worked so hard setting up a multimillion-dollar student program (that started with a P) that senior leadership just decided to drop after a couple years. So…kinda…why bother?

  3. Note: if it’s somehow tied to new-student-recruitment in my region, then uni is all in behind this.

  4. Real needs I/we have, vs. what’s offered/available from the funder: TRAVEL FUNDING!! (Idea: consider travel funds needed, multiply 10x and fill in with other stuff? )

    1. Note: Stan says the 10% travel thing only applies to non-PIs. ??

Thing’s they’re saying…

Stan:

They may ask you to make your grant bigger. See concern #1.

Planning grants ($100’s of thousands) are easier to get than big ($millions) grant project.

…so far this seems to be repeated content from similar session(s) during B2C2 meetings.*

They like to give brief grants that set up sustainable things that endure beyond the scope of the grant, e.g. student clubs with B2C2. (lol, student club seems to have been the most temporary part of this whole thing.) Whether the stuff actually sustains is not the point: It helps make the grant app more palatable to the granting body! ;-)

They like public engagement.

TRT Guy, Pete Jordan:

TRT is invitation-only. “You B2C2 alumni are in a great position because you’ve basically been invited to submit anything.”

Staying nimble with a 500-year view.

Ooooooo TWCF fits my interests, even funds scientific breakthrough, and even a specific program “Diverse Intelligences”:

image-20200616112309700

…but we’re talking about TRT, not TWCF. TRT is more specifically focused on religion.

Money: max $234,000 (all included). max 15% overhead, max 10% travel & lodging for non-grant-program-PIs. (Stan: PIs can travel as much as they want…?)

You may never hear back from TRT. Because they don’t communicate well. Unfortunately. …but also all of a sudden (after a long silence) you might find that you just got funded!

Deadline: end of calendar year. “Rolling submission” as in, you might hear back before end of year.

You’re invited to submit a prospectus: 2100 words with a goal to get invited to submit a bigger proposal. Bigger document determines funding. Goal with Prospected

People who review:

  • Stefan
  • Program Officers: Chris B (St. Andrews Theology grad) & Kara,
    • PO’s become advocates & editors for ideas they like. (Think “A&R rep” maybe?) They advise.
  • Chief Grants Officer: Chris S.

You can get “on the radar” by having great ideas that PO’s like.

My ideas / reflections:

  • Getting to hire research assistants has been awesome.

  • Buying course release was awesome. But it pushed a burden given that classes need teaching, adjuncts are near-impossible to find, and no new faculty positions are being offered (e.g. no Magruder-replacement in the works.)
  • Maybe we can buy a GPU workstation (computer)??
  • Computational Cognition: Categories and Creativity …or… Categories, Concepts, & Creativity with Computers and Humans (C4H?)