NIH Program Seeks to Speed Grant Process for New Applicants, from the Chronicle

The National Institutes of Health has announced a pilot program designed to expedite the grant process for young scientists who have never won an award from the agency. If successful, the NIH might extend the revised procedure to all investigators, who often complain about delays.

Well that certainly would be a good thing. Maybe if this program is successful, other granting agencies will adopt the procedure. The standard 9 months review time is a bit excessive.

On the other hand:

…the new grants would also provide three years of money… Recipients could use this money as a sweetener — Dr. Zerhouni called it a “dowry” — to induce prospective employers to hire them to tenure-track positions.

Yikes! Imagine is that became common practice? As if the job search process isn’t difficult enough. And probably far worse in Medicine than in LIS. Imagine if you needed a “dowry” in order to get a job? So much for the quality of your research and your potential to keep it up being the primary hiring criteria. And timing would also matter: if candidate A is at the start of his 3 year grant & candidate B is in year 2, having spent 2 years worth of funding already… well, how many institutions would hire the candidate with the most money?