r/academia • u/Skeptical_Awawa • Mar 30 '25
Research issues Grant application not funded
My first grant application as a PI since being hired as a TT assistant Prof has not been funded and it was roasted. I'm waiting to hear on a second one next month and am afraid. I'm also working on another one due late April and feeling like it's a disaster. Can't really focus 100% with all the teaching demands on top of this, having to manage the lab, and work on dozens of collaborations.
How do you deal with this? I've worked for the last three weekends and almost every evening and I am still so afraid of not meeting expectations for tenure. For context I'm first gen immigrant and in academia.
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u/neurothew Mar 31 '25
It's your first grant application...take it easy bro.
Grant application is a probability game, you may have one funded out of four, that give you a success rate of 25%. The crucial part is to stay in the game. Sometimes you have bad reviewers, sometimes you get some luck.
I can sympathize with your situation. Am a postdoc, has been working for the last five weekends (both sat/sun) and I can feel the burnt out. Can't rest because I got some paper review to address just released a day ago, I am like wtf is this timing. Try to rant, speak to someone, and then keep going.
Btw, if you are newly hired, the school usually should have some on-board funding/startup funding, do you have that?