When do professors know about the outcome of their grant proposals?

[beanbagchairs]

There are two questions in this:

(1)I only have a vague idea of how grants work. Is there any usual time line (yearly?) when professors know about the outcome of their grant proposals? I can imagine there are many grant schemes out there whose decision dates vary. I am just wondering if there is a certain time period where most grant granters release their decisions; similar to graduate school decisions that are, mostly, out by February-April.

(2)If a professor's proposal is accepted this year, when will it actually get funded (this year or next year?)

I am funded through an RAship + fellowship that is good for up to 6 years. I have no obligation for the first year; but, I need to find professors who have RA openings for subsequent years to supplement my fellowship. I am guaranteed an RA position; but, my choices are still limited to those who have RA openings, which depends on the outcome of their grant proposals.

[LJK]

Your imagination is correct There are many grant schemes. It all depends on where the money is coming from: NSF (National Science Foundation), NIH (National Institutes of Health), DOD (Department of Defense), DOE (Department of Energy), etc. Even within organizations the timeline varies. If you look through academic blogs such as Female Science Professor (FSP) and DrugMonkey you will be able to start to get a handle on the whole thing. Even the grant funded announcement to money available timeline can vary a lot. FSP had a recent post on the topic. But as an example, my current advisor had a October proposal deadline (I think), started hearing positive things in December/January, and was officially notified that she will get getting her proposal funded in February - just in time to accept a new student to be funded on the grant. She doesn't expect to have access to the money until August.

If you know what you are interested in doing research wise, and have an idea of what professor you want to work with, you could talk to them about it early and see if you could influence that professor into writing a grant for the type of research you want to do. But if you are less sure what you want to do, thats fine too - most people only try to get an NSF grad fellowship at the beginning of grad school - not a full grant with their prof.

[beanbagchairs]

Ah.. that's how it works. Thanks LJK.

[Tall Chai Latte]

If your professor is funded by the government agencies, the proposal and amount of grant awarded is public information, at least for what I know about NIH and NSF grants. For example, if your PI has NIH grants, NIH RePORTER is a place to look the proposals up...

[beanbagchairs]

Ahh ok. I'll check that out. Thanks