This round, we switched from a system where we had all the grant discussion in a single spreadsheet to one where we discuss each grant in a separate Google doc, linked from a single spreadsheet. One fund manager has commented that they feel less on-top of this grant round than before as a result. (We’re going to rethink this system again for next grant round.) We also changed the fund composition a bunch—Helen and Matt left, I became chair, and three new guest managers joined. A priori, this could cause a shift in standards, though I have no particular reason to think it would shift them downward.
I personally don’t think the standards have fallen because I’ve been keeping close track of all the grants and feel like I have a good model of the old fund team (and in some cases, have asked them directly for advice). I think the old team would have made similar decisions to the ones we’re making on this set of applications. It’s possible there would have been a few differences, but not enough to explain a big change in spending.
Thanks! I’m actually not surprised that the quality of grant applications might be increasing e.g. due to people learning more about what makes for a good grant.
I have a follow-on question. Do you think that the increase in the size of the grant requests is justified? Is this because people are being more ambitious in what they want to do?
(To be clear, I think it’s mostly just that we have more applications, and less that the mean application is significantly better than before.)
In several cases increased grant requests reflect larger projects or requests for funding for longer time periods. We’ve also definitely had a marked increase in the average individual salary request per year—setting aside whether this is justified, this runs into a bunch of thorny issues around secondary effects that we’ve been discussing this round. I think we’re likely to prioritize having a more standardized policy for individual salaries by next grant round.
We also did a lot more promotion and encouraged more people to submit promising applications, and this plausibly also caused more people to apply – so it may be faster-than-organic growth.
This round, we switched from a system where we had all the grant discussion in a single spreadsheet to one where we discuss each grant in a separate Google doc, linked from a single spreadsheet. One fund manager has commented that they feel less on-top of this grant round than before as a result. (We’re going to rethink this system again for next grant round.) We also changed the fund composition a bunch—Helen and Matt left, I became chair, and three new guest managers joined. A priori, this could cause a shift in standards, though I have no particular reason to think it would shift them downward.
I personally don’t think the standards have fallen because I’ve been keeping close track of all the grants and feel like I have a good model of the old fund team (and in some cases, have asked them directly for advice). I think the old team would have made similar decisions to the ones we’re making on this set of applications. It’s possible there would have been a few differences, but not enough to explain a big change in spending.
Thanks! I’m actually not surprised that the quality of grant applications might be increasing e.g. due to people learning more about what makes for a good grant.
I have a follow-on question. Do you think that the increase in the size of the grant requests is justified? Is this because people are being more ambitious in what they want to do?
(To be clear, I think it’s mostly just that we have more applications, and less that the mean application is significantly better than before.)
In several cases increased grant requests reflect larger projects or requests for funding for longer time periods. We’ve also definitely had a marked increase in the average individual salary request per year—setting aside whether this is justified, this runs into a bunch of thorny issues around secondary effects that we’ve been discussing this round. I think we’re likely to prioritize having a more standardized policy for individual salaries by next grant round.
We also did a lot more promotion and encouraged more people to submit promising applications, and this plausibly also caused more people to apply – so it may be faster-than-organic growth.