Complaints about lack of feedback for rejected grants are fairly frequent, but it seems relevant that I canāt get feedback for my accepted grants or in-progress work. The most I have ever gotten was a š react when I texted them āIn response to my results I will be doing X instead of the original plan on the applicationā. In fact I think Iāve gotten more feedback on rejections than acceptances (or in one case, I received feedback on an accepted grant, from a committee member whoād voted to reject). Sometimes they give me more money, so itās not that the work is so bad itās not worth commenting on. Admittedly my grants are quite small, but Iām not sure how much feedback medium or even large projects get.
Acceptance feedback should be almost strictly easier to give, and higher impact. You presumably already know positives about the grant, the impact of marginal improvements is higher in most cases, people rarely get mad about positive feedback, and even if you share negatives the impact is cushioned by the fact that youāre still approving their application. So without saying where I think the line should be, I do think feedback for acceptances is higher priority than for rejections.
A relevant question here is āwhat would I give up to get that feedback?ā. This is very sensitive to the quality of feedback and I donāt know exactly whatās on offer, butā¦ I think Iād give up at least 5% of my grants in exchange for a Triplebyte-style short email outlining why the grant was accepted, what their hopes are, and potential concerns.
I have had that experience too. It seems grant work is pretty independent. I think it is worth emphasizing that even though you might not get much except a thumbs up, it is important to inform the grantmakers about changes in plans. Moreover, I think your way of doing it as a statement instead of as a question is a good strategy. I have also included something along the lines of āif you have concerns, questions or objections about my proposed change of plan, please contact me asapā so you firmly place the ball in the grantmakersā court and that it seems fair to interpret a lack of response as an endorsement of your proposed changes.
Complaints about lack of feedback for rejected grants are fairly frequent, but it seems relevant that I canāt get feedback for my accepted grants or in-progress work. The most I have ever gotten was a š react when I texted them āIn response to my results I will be doing X instead of the original plan on the applicationā. In fact I think Iāve gotten more feedback on rejections than acceptances (or in one case, I received feedback on an accepted grant, from a committee member whoād voted to reject). Sometimes they give me more money, so itās not that the work is so bad itās not worth commenting on. Admittedly my grants are quite small, but Iām not sure how much feedback medium or even large projects get.
Acceptance feedback should be almost strictly easier to give, and higher impact. You presumably already know positives about the grant, the impact of marginal improvements is higher in most cases, people rarely get mad about positive feedback, and even if you share negatives the impact is cushioned by the fact that youāre still approving their application. So without saying where I think the line should be, I do think feedback for acceptances is higher priority than for rejections.
A relevant question here is āwhat would I give up to get that feedback?ā. This is very sensitive to the quality of feedback and I donāt know exactly whatās on offer, butā¦ I think Iād give up at least 5% of my grants in exchange for a Triplebyte-style short email outlining why the grant was accepted, what their hopes are, and potential concerns.
I have had that experience too. It seems grant work is pretty independent. I think it is worth emphasizing that even though you might not get much except a thumbs up, it is important to inform the grantmakers about changes in plans. Moreover, I think your way of doing it as a statement instead of as a question is a good strategy. I have also included something along the lines of āif you have concerns, questions or objections about my proposed change of plan, please contact me asapā so you firmly place the ball in the grantmakersā court and that it seems fair to interpret a lack of response as an endorsement of your proposed changes.