agency rumours

the disbursement of the stimulus funding through the science agencies is going to get real interesting

some disparate word has reached me on the stimulus funding

first, the NSF divisions won't hear for a while, like next month, how much they individually get to push out the door (NIH might be different since the bill specifies the funding goes pro-rate to the divisions).
But, the clock on getting the money disbursed is already counting, they basically have 120 days to dispose of the money from the signing of the bill.

Now, some calls for proposal are in current evaluation (oh to have a CAREER proposal in this year, they ought to do well in terms of funding percentages), but there is not really time to call for major new rounds of proposals and get them evaluated.
So... at least some of the money will go back to the bubble proposals - highly rated but unfunded and formally rejected proposals from last round are likely to be dusted off and retroactively funded.
If you had a 4.4 unfunded last round, then yes, you too may have the finger of god direct a few hundred $k in your direction. Surprise!

This could get interesting. Might also resuscitate the postdoc market, just-in-time.

More as and when I hear about it.

PS: so the new info being passed along is that they will NOT go back to last years proposals - only proposals for the current fiscal year (Oct '08 -> Sep '09) - at least for individual PI proposals - I don't see how this is possible for cross-disciplinary or Center size proposals, the calls for proposals are too intermittent
So, if you have an NSF proposal in the pipeline your odds of funding are probable something like 2-3 times higher than normal.
If you had a highly rated proposal rejected since Oct - something in the "fund if possible" category, then you may get the random phone call telling you it is unrejected

Oh, and good time to ask for supplements if you can rationalise them well - like buying equipment (US made natch) upfront to accelerate the research and utilize staff

They don't want to hear you're going hoard your grant for the lean years to come

PIs Go Hire People and Buy New Toys Now!

PPS: PhysioProf over at Drug Monkey has some NIH info - it is consistent with the NSF story; go back and pick out high ranked proposals that didn't make the cut, fund currently submitted proposals, and look for supplements.

Going to be some interesting market distortions in academia this year, more extremes of winning than normal, harsher on those who don't make the cut.
An equipment supplemental would be sweet though, with a new award natch.
Some very useful toys out there, and most people under propose for equipment because of the perception that asking for a lot hurts your chances and salaries are usually more important for yer average PI grant

Oh, and don't expect to see anything from NASA - most of the "science" money is earmarked for getting climate science going - specifically earth observing systems and modeling - going to be some supercomputing purchases also.