I used to think that writing grants is a necessary evil, but now I realized it is a great way to plan research at a high level, beyond individual papers or projects.
Basically, it is not just about writing what you plan to do. You are essentially authoring a top paper, but not yet published.
Another thing I didn’t learn in the industry: decreasing the speed of publishing a paper can increase the chance of getting a grant.
More specifically, good research alone may suffice for publishing papers, but grants are given to projects that still have sufficient future works.
A fundable project needs to strike the right balance between finished and unfinished works.
Leaning too much towards the former has been the main reason for my grant proposal rejections so far.
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