While I like the mission of the future fund, some of these grants seem wasteful. For example, the $150k Moncef Slaoui grant. Isn’t that person already able to afford to write their own memoir? $150K could fund an actual project or fund 15 $10K projects. Perhaps evaluating whether or not the applicant is likely to be able to accomplish their proposal without future fund funding should be incorporated into the review process. Also, some of the grants seem unnecessarily large. Maybe many smaller proposals being funded initially and then doubling down on promising ones would be a better approach.
While I like the mission of the future fund, some of these grants seem wasteful. For example, the $150k Moncef Slaoui grant. Isn’t that person already able to afford to write their own memoir? $150K could fund an actual project or fund 15 $10K projects. Perhaps evaluating whether or not the applicant is likely to be able to accomplish their proposal without future fund funding should be incorporated into the review process. Also, some of the grants seem unnecessarily large. Maybe many smaller proposals being funded initially and then doubling down on promising ones would be a better approach.