Another rejection - no big deal

Apathy, rejection, weariness

Feedback was not particularly helpful or insightful. Different reviewers will make different
comments and addressing them in the following round(s) feels like using band-aids to patch up
one perceived inadequacy only for a different set of reviewers to bring up different perceived
inadequacies. Feedback from NHMRC panels would be much more useful since they're the ones
making the decisions.
Feedback was positive but was essentially "we are oversubscribed", which is frustrating, but
understandable.
Depressing
Devastated given the time and my own feelings of competitiveness of the application against the
guidelines and selection criteria
Disappointed
Disappointed as my work fit in with what they wanted but I was not cost competitive as I had to
ask for salary
Disappointed because I had a novel idea relevant to the research focus of both the government
and the ARC. But it seems what is most important is publishing in high impact factor or highly
ranked journals whether the work has relevance to the society or economy or not, AND not
necessarily if you have a brilliant research idea and also in your early career, where you need
support to take your ideas to a higher level. It seems too that if you do not have previous contact
with the ARC in terms of funding, your chances are very low.
Disappointed, but okay since I could resubmit again. Don't know the outcome yet.
Disappointed. Lack confidence
Disappointed; I started questioning whether I should work outside of academia as it seems that
there are more funding opportunities when working in the private sector and that the contracts
offered are long term contracts.
disappointing, particularly in an environment with job insecurity and staff and students depending
on me securing funding
Disappointment
dishearted, frustrated, not surprised, feeling like the application was a waste of time
disheartened - time could have been better spent - but also relieved because there was probably a
jolly good reason (which I'd love to know) as to why I didn't get funding
expected with such a low success rate (NHMRC ~8%), especially for early-mid-career researchers
Extremely disappointed and questioning the value of staying in research
Feedback from external reviewers during ARC Discovery Projects is the most helpful part of this
process. It would be advantageous if scores were released during the rejoinder process though.
Feedback from internal review is shockingly poor. How can you improve your application when no
feedback is provided? Also, how can a grant be worse in following years when you address the
comments of external review? A non-transparent system with one call per year, with no memory
of previous submissions and no release of feedback is simply not fit for purpose.
Frustrating, feels like you are being prevented from adopting translational practices to improve
service delivery
Frustrating, unconstructive and damaging
Frustration
Frustration with lack of funding opportunities and that funds usually won by professors with long
track records. Hard to get ahead as mid career researcher. Also lack of time in my workload to do
research as a mid career researcher.
Frustration.
Acceptance
Full grant application was a waste of time -could've been better spent writing papers etc.
Minimal, if any, feedback doesn't facilitate revision and re-submission
Heart-breaking and demoralising, what more can I do. Dejected and feeling like giving up a
research career
I can only speak to the one that has come back, I'm yet to hear about the other one's outcome.
For the one I was unsuccessful with, I felt disappointed because I've tried for this grant a couple of
times and feel the project put forward as valuable but perhaps not successful because it's seen as
a new or novel area of practice. No feedback was provided which is frustrating. I've decided to give
up on this particular grant because of a lack of success with it in the past.
I feel I don't fit the "traditional" academic criteria. I have come back to academia from industry
and the industry experience is not recognised - I cannot complete with those that have a long
history of "creditable research" despite my research making a significant impact on industry so I
have to rely on direct funding from industry.
I feel that I do not have support among experienced colleagues. Hence, there are no vested
interests in my success as a minority academic.
I was very disappointed and dissatisfied with the outcome as I received very positive comments
and high scores from all reviewers except one reviewer.
Inconsistent and vague responses.
Inevitable
Inevitable resignation.
It is disheartening as you have put in so much time, effort and energy and displaced so much out
of your life (e.g. family/ personal time) that it is hard not to feel like a failure (even though most of
the time it is due to there just not being enough funding to go around). We are constantly marked
and judged in this line of work. It is disappointing if you only get scores or not even scores because
how can you know what to improve for next time??
It sucked. I put in my best work and had a verifiably exceptional track record. Assessors evaluated
my DECRA application very positively. I found out through a FOI request that my application was
given all As and was the highest rated grant by my assessors. But I didn't get funded. A White male
colleague with an objectively weaker track record did get funded. It was proof that somebody like
me needed to be twice as accomplished to be taken just half as seriously as my White
counterparts. The ARC general assessors were evidently not willing to stick their neck out for
somebody like me.
It sucks - as it happens regularly. In my current appointment I didn't need to apply for funding,
however in the previous one (2 years ago) I have applied for funding from 9 different schemes
within 12 months! It was one of the requirements of that position to seek more funds, also to
justify my presence within that research centre. And it wasn't a good feeling when you are
constantly getting rejected... and there is hardly any possibility of getting the contract extended
because of that situation.
I believe the fixed-term employment is a massive problem - at least for my wellbeing. I am not able
to work efficiently when I need to worry about my job every 3-6 months and desperately try to
justify my existence. I was lucky with the current position (over 2 years contract) but it is going to
end at some point and I need to slowly start thinking about my future (in or out the academia). I
think as researchers we could be much more effective/productive if there would be more stability.
It would also help with dealing with the negative outcomes from funding as our existence/job
would not rely so heavily on them...
It was disappointing that the funding body did not provide any feedback on how we could be
successful next time, considering how much time we put in preparing the application.
It was quite disappointing as we thought we had a strong application
It's never pleasant to receive negative feedback, but it's particularly annoying when the negative
comments are based on reviewer personal opinion, or on facts that can be disproven in the
literature
It's to be expected. Funding rates are so low, I have almost no hope any application will be funded.
It still remains disappointing, but largely I feel this is a huge waste of time. So many researchers
spend months writing grants - with funding rates <10% for Cat 1 such as NHMRC, this represents a
massive loss that could be better spent performing our actual jobs (research).
just part of the process, not fussed really
Normal day at work.
Not a priority in this round
Not enough detail was given. No standard deviation or range from scores of a successful grant so
we have no idea how close or how far away we were
Not good but expected due to super competitive
Not surprised but the continuous lack of feedback is highly frustrating. The grants are all reviewed
so they have feedback from reviewers but applicants receive nothing. We could be submitting the
same project over and over with the same issues and never know because there is never any
feedback. Further, unsuccessful grants are invisible in workload and recognition for work.
note: my comments related to the largest of my unsuccessful grants to NHMRC. The comments
from reviewers were generally very positive. Nothing that seemed a genuine limitation that
rendered the study flawed. This feeds the frustration that even with an extremely well-written
grant and a project that would have a large impact, you still do not get funding. After many, many
experiences of this I feel hopeless, unmotivated, and apathetic. It is the most unsatisfying part of
the job and is enough to drive many of us out of research.
Success seems like a lottery. I am sure many strong applications go unfunded. Funding body
reviews of my application were very strong so it is impossible to determine how to improve the
application.
The feedback was not about the quality of the project but more attacking the CIs of the
application, particularly the lead CI.
The person who was awarded the fellowship was moved to the upper employment level just after
their submission of the application so technically they should have been competing with people
on that level and not the ones below. Examiner feedback was that i was on too many committees
for someone of my level-such conflicting advice to everything else we are told. I was feeling very
deflated and had spent the few weeks before Christmas working on this application, what a waste.
The rich get richer. Taking risks are not rewarded.
There is simply not enough money in the pot to distribute - so many great grants are going
unfunded. Very unhappy about this, especially as we have recently heard about the MRFF mess.
Unhappy and then indifference.
Upset, but used to it (from previous experiences) - based on the reviewers' comments it appeared
the reviewers either did not read or understand the details of the proposal, or were perhaps
hostile to it (i.e. a potential competitor).
Very bad on their part to not provide feedback on why my application was not selection. For MRFF
EMCR grant application, even the score was not provided. Really frustrated and disappointed.
Very depressing, heartbroken, insecure about the future, dispossessed and desponded
Very disappointed
we knew the number of applications was small (less than 5). We found out through networks
another group was successful. It hurt more that we weren't told and our research office had to ask
if a decision had been made for us to find out.
With the large fellowship application I felt really positive about it prior to the outcome, so the
rejection came as a blow and my mood sunk for the rest of the day upon finding out and I left
work early. I was upset and initially felt quite defeated, but with some distance I felt okay with the
outcome and positive about the feedback I received.