Study Section Time

So the study section for my R03 meets this week.  I’m nervous as all heck.  From the professionals listed on the R03, I’m guessing none of the ad hoc reviewers were specifically asked to join because of my grant.  I like the R03 mechanism because it can be used for pilot projects like mine.  But I know because of the limited funding some of the R03 grants that will be proposed are studies that need just a little bit more to be finished so they all have prelim data.  I wish the R03 would break it down to we will fund X new projects and X continuing projects.  Somehow I don’t think that it works that way.   It is a strange time to be in science.  Politicians tout that America is fantastic at research and biomedical advances, which is correct….but how can we continue to be innovative with decreasing funds to research?  Strange times.  I guess the key is to just try to persevere as best you can, wait out the storm and hope that drastic changes in the way we conduct politics will correlate with increased funding.  Anyway, done with the diatribe.  I will hear back with an initial score early next week.  Wish me luck.