Science is supposed to be objective and meritocratic, any scientist knows that it is far from that and the grant writing process is a prime example. Naturally if you step out of line and criticise it then it must be sour grapes because you didn’t get funded. I’ve thought many times about writing a blog post about it but I think this is just a mental exercise to let off steam. Plenty of writers far more talented than me regularly publish insightful critiques into the system but it never really changes. If anything, much like society, more of the wealth seems to be concentrating with a tinier percentage. Whoops there I go…
So I prefer to let the drawings do the talking and instead of trying to dismiss the whole exercise, which is after all a necessary evil, to point out aspects that everyone can hopefully agree on with a wry grin and maybe just a few expletives. It is a truth universally acknowledged that no matter how much data you cram into the grant application, pushing font and margin sizes to the limit, there is always more you could include. And the reviewers will pick up on this.
A lot of reviewers make Darth Vader seem reasonable
This design is available on a range of cool products from my RedBubble store.