All this time I have been worried about having two grants to submit in the July round. After discussing each grant with the respective colleagues I am working with on them, I decided to get started with grant number 1 about a month ago. This decision was both related to my investment in #1 being higher than that in #2 (meaning more writing and organizing on my part) and to the style of each collaborator. I knew that with grant #1 I would be able to email my co-PI and ask him to write a section or send me his budget numbers and have an answer within a couple of hours. With grant #2, I've gone weeks between communication with this colleague during writing periods, and not due to lack of effort on my part. Sometimes co-PI #2 just disappears and my only shot to get ahold of them is to call their spouse to ask whether my collaborator has been in the hospital for weeks after a brutal accident, or something (a dirty trick, but effective).
With July starting tomorrow, grant number 1 is almost done, with most of our support documents in hand. I called collaborator #2 yesterday to figure out where they were at with their portions of the grant and was told that #2 had not had time to work on it and would get on it before classes. Okaaaaay, I thought, but I'm pretty sure that classes start in September and our deadline is in July. Co-PI #2 the proceeded to wonder why I would be thinking about submitting it in the July round. These are the times I wish I had a tape recording of all my phone conversations because the answer is because that's exactly what we discussed two months ago when I agreed to do this project with you! Other than that, I have no reason.
So, the moral of the story is that I can focus entirely on the grant that is almost done and that I am more heavily invested in anyway. Since I can't turn around my recently declined grant for this round, grant #1 is all I have to deal with. It's like I could take a couple of days off and get some rest now. I have 10 whole days to finish this up.
2 days ago
I'm not so sure that "a history of getting stabby" is a good way to encourage future collaborations... at least not the collaborations I am looking for.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about what coolaborating on the actual project would be like with #2 if you ever got that grant? You might want to just... let that particular project wait until #2 gets his/her act together (which I assume would be never). I'm struggling right now with a difficult co-author and I can't wait to get the projects done so that I can avoid working with him ever again. And when he suggests something new, I will just wait for him to do a first draft, which will mean I won't ever have to deal with it, essentially!
ReplyDeleteI already know what it's like to work with #2. I have done so in the past and I can work around their biggest issues. #2 does bring a decent amount to the table, just not speed.
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