The Philosophers' Cocoon

Resources for philosophers writing grant proposals?

Scott Hill (University of Innsbruck) asks,

Are there any good resources for philosophers who are writing grant proposals? What do you write in the methods section? Surely you can‘t talk about matching intuition and satisfying theoretical virtues. So what do you talk about? Thanks!

Good questions. Does anyone with experience have any helpful tips?

Are rejection rates particularly high in philosophy?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Are the rates of rejection - of articles from journals, of grant applications from funding bodies, of job applications from universities - particularly high in Philosophy? Is there some data about the average number of rejected papers per published papers from other disciplines? (Or a similar statistic about grant/job applications?)

Knowing this won't change anything on ground, but the (potential) solidarity with others would help feel a bit less disadvantaged (if I actually am).

Good questions. A while back,  Eric Schliesser (Amsterdam) presented some data at Daily Nous that rejection rates at philosophy journals tend to be far higher than in other fields, and when I've shared journal rejection rates in philosophy with some people in other fields, they have been shocked at how high our journals' rejection rates are.

If the OP is looking for a little grounds for solidarity on getting lots of rejections, they may find this post by Jason Stanley of interest, as well the following recent post by Neil Levy (Oxford University) on Twitter/'X':

Phil Studies accepted the very 1st paper I sent them. They rejected the subsequent SEVENTEEN attempts. Anyway, don't be discouraged by rejection, but definitely don't tell anyone you're on a 17 rejection streak until it ends.

I'm not so sure about rejection rates for grant applications and job applications, though. I do know anecdotally that the academic job market is significantly better in some other fields (until last year, my spouse was an academic in a rapidly growing, specialized STEM field flush with job openings and not all that many applicants), but I suspect things vary a lot here depending on field. 

Do any readers have any better info on the OP's questions (on rejection rates from journals, grants, and job apps)?

'Cross-training' opportunity in philosophy & psychological sciences (Templeton grant @Baylor)

The following opportunity has been brought to my attention:

Thanks to a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, we are pleased to announce a Request for Proposals for cross-training opportunities with the psychological sciences, run by Dr. Devan Stahl (PI), Dr. Natalie Carnes, Dr. Anne Jeffrey, Dr. Sarah Schnitker, Dr. JoAnn Tsang.. Those working in any discipline that engages theological inquiry are welcome to apply (moral theology, philosophy, aesthetics, etc.). This program will help successful applicants build supportive and collaborative interpersonal relationships with other scholars interested in the psychological sciences interested in working on research of interest to theologians. 

In addition to one funded year of cross training, successful applicants will then have the opportunity to apply for an additional $45,000 of salary funding for additional training and $5,000-40,000 for a collaborative empirical study with a psychology lab in subsequent years. 

If you or a colleague is interested in exploring issues relevant to Christian theology and philosophy, especially virtue, suffering and vulnerability, and religious aesthetics please consider applying. 

Applications are due February 1, 2023. For more information on this project, and for the details of the funding request, please see the attached PDF and visit our website: https://www.baylor.edu/ethics/index.php?id=986085

Questions should be directed to [email protected].

Adding grants to papers

In our July "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Suppose I have a grant starting, say, today. Suppose I have a paper at its final stage before publication. Should I add the grant to the paper (assuming the paper topic is aligned with the grant topic)? I have no idea what the answer is... Please chime in!

To add, I also have no idea whether the grant info needs to appear in a minimal number of papers.

I've never had a grant like this (only internal grants for particular projects), so I don't know the answer. Anyone with experience with grants have any insight?

A list of grants?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

Is there a clearinghouse for grants philosophers can apply for? I have a sabbatical coming up, would like to find grant funding, but am not sure if there's some sort of master database of philosophy grants. I'm US-based; I know about NEH grants, and Templeton, but there must be other bigger ones out there I'm not aware of. (And yes in theory my institution has a person who helps with grants... in practice, not so much). Thanks!

This is good question. Do any of you know of a resource like this? If not, it might be good to crowdsource a list of grants that philosophers can apply for in the comments section below!

Hiring friends with grant money?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Is it permissible to use your grant money to hire friends who are not experts in the funded area (though still can contribute) to support them financially? Thanks in advance!

Another reader immediately submitted the following reply:

That is unethical and in some places it is illegal. Don't do it

I'm not sure there is much more to say here. Although I've heard anecdotally that nepotism may be common in certain places, it's widely considered to be an unethical practice and I definitely wouldn't want to run the risk of getting in serious institutional or legal trouble for misusing grant money. But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Formulating good grant proposals?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, D writes:

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the best way to formulate research proposals, especially for grant applications. In particular, I am undecided between these two options:

(a) in terms of the arguments that you intend to make. For example: "I will write a paper arguing that X."
(b) in terms of open research questions that you wish to explore. For example: "I will write a paper exploring X."

I would be glad to hear what people who have won grant applications or been on committees prefer or if they have any other suggestions.

This is a great query. I've only applied for a few grants myself, so I'd be very interested to hear some tips as well. Have any readers won grants, or alternatively, judged grant applications? If so, do you have any helpful advice? 

Extra financial (e.g. research) support?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, J writes:

I am wondering about ways to find rather small financial support for people from places with less resources available to them. Say I want to focus on a research project, attend a workshop, or spent a short visit here and there. I might be able to get some support but, due to many factors including differences of currencies and else I cannot solely rely on that. What else I can do? What are the possibilities?

Here’s an example. At times I think whether I can suggest to present a short course or a similar teaching service to finance a visit to that center/department. But not being from Europe, I don’t know the opportunities, possibilities, and the norms. Any advice would be appreciated.

Good questions, and I'm not sure--especially since the OP seems to be in Europe and I have no experience there. However, the thought that immediately occurred to me is: grants. In addition to government or private grants, many universities (at least in the US) also have smaller internal grants one can apply for (e.g. on the order of several thousand dollars or more). Alternatively, if you can give talks at other universities, they may be able to offer you some sort of honorarium. But, in addition to these things, I'm not all that sure what the options or opportunities here are. Any readers have any helpful tips?

Good grants for junior philosophers?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I've recently moved to the UK for a postdoc. They have lots of grants here, and I gather that it's a good idea for me to start building a track record of getting them (is that right?). If so: what sorts of things do younger folks usually do with a grant, and what sorts of grants are we competitive for?

This is a great question! I suspect quite a few readers, both in the UK and elsewhere, might benefit from hearing some answers. Do any of you with grant experience have any tips or other advice?

Writing successful grant applications?

In our "how can we help you?" thread, J writes:

How to write a successful grant application? I am soon to defend my PhD and I have many publications both in good general journals and top special journals so publishing is not an issue. However, where I am located it is normal to apply for a grant application as a PostDoc - to get any funding for your work. But how on earth one writes a successful application? For me, the problem seems to be that if I have an idea for a paper, I can easily write a publishable article on the topic. All I have to do is to look for articles in the journals and write my own ideas in the same way. But I have never seen a grant application that received funding, so I have no idea how they look. Is it possible to see successful grant applications somewhere? And another related point. How do you come up with ideas that need years working? When I have an idea, I write a short clever article in a few days and publish it in a journal that is fast. How to come up with 'big questions' or themes that need to be worked for many years? Do people just take the small issues and somehow make them look like big when they apply for example a grant for three years?

It seems for me that the grants go for people who know how to write applications and who can justify others that some (minor) issue needs years of pondering when in reality an efficient scholar could write an article or two on the same topic quite fast. Is it easier to get a grant for writing a book than articles? Or do I even have to explain in the application whether I am going to publish my research in a book or in articles? If I am saying I want to write a book, does it help if I manage to get a book contract before receiving funding for it? It seems yes, but on the other hand, if publishers want to see the whole manuscript before giving a contract, then the funder might think that the work is already done if one has the contract and thus maybe they do not give any money because no-one gives you money if the work is already done.

Lots of good questions here. I don't have much experience applying for grants, so I'm really not the best person to ask for advice here. But I have recently applied for one grant (currently under review), and have experience coming up with 'big questions' (two books and a third book idea for the grant application), so I can say a bit about that.

Call for Proposals: Course Development Grants in Science & Theology

Call for Proposals: Course Development Grants in Science and Theology

The “New Visions in Theological Anthropology” project at the University of St Andrews has announced a new round of course development grants in Science and Theology. 

Next application deadlines: 31 October 2020, 28 February 2021

Additional application rounds will be announced regularly until early 2022. 

Our project seeks to encourage research and teaching that brings together science and theology/religion. We encourage the development of courses which use empirical research in some aspect of theology/religion.  

• We are especially drawn to the pairings of

(1) Moral Theology & Evolutionary Biology,

(2) Spiritual Formation & Developmental Psychology, and

(3) Ecclesiology & Cognitive Science.  

• We also welcome proposals for any syllabus that engages theology with empirical science. 

• Since developing a course will take time away from other research, we have launched this series of Course Development Grants and offer stipends of £2,000.

Full details can be found here:

https://set.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/course-development-grant/ 

Applying for postdoc grants

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, D writes:

I’m curious about the kinds of post doc funding made available by grant agencies like the early career funding available through the Humboldt Foundation, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Leverhulme Trust, and such. Would anybody be willing to provide guidance as to how one might go about obtaining such funding? I don’t mean just submitting the applications, which I take to be pretty straight forward (aside from the process of making one’s research appealing to the evaluators for such agencies). Some of these seem to grant postdoc funding for one’s individual projects at a host institution, where the host institution itself isn’t financially on the hook the person. How does one go about connecting with a desired host institution or faculty member at such a host institution? Is it all a matter of one’s antecedent connections? Is it ever acceptable to write a such a faculty member, in effect, saying “I’m interested in this project you’re working on, and it relates to my work like so. Would you be willing to sponsor my application to X?” Is there any other practical wisdom worth knowing about how to obtain such a postdoc? Perhaps this is obvious to job market candidates from Europe, but I'm a US grad, and this info seems harder to come by.

Euro responded:

I can say a bit about Marie Curie. They are very competitive, and more universities are spending money running workshops to help people write strong applications. You really need to have your research project connect tightly with a faculty member sponsor. So, clearly, it is best if you have already connected with the person, not only corresponding with them, but actually engaging with their research. I have sponsored two applicants (who did not get them ... which is not a surprise, given how competitive they are). But the evaluation reports explicitly talked about me, the sponsor, in the evaluation. (Incidentally, I was not the weak link). But they are not the sort of thing you just apply for. You need to have connected with your sponsor, and they need to support your project. As you note, universities love them because you essentially pay your own way. These sorts of grant schemes are common in Europe.

Euro then also added:

In most of northern-western Europe (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Finland), the national funding bodies (and sometimes private foundations) support faculty research. One common form of support is to get money to support a project, which allows one to hire a post-doc or two (or more). The post-doc is tied to a very specific project, and is expected to work on it (though they can often spend some time on other research as well). These post docs are advertised like jobs (because they are jobs, and in many cases they pay well). But to be competitive you need to actually work on the topic of the post doc project. Here is where stretching things just does not work - I have seen applications that try. The most competitive candidates are already working on the topic, and have probably already read the supervisors work.

Any other readers with experience in these matters feel fit to weigh in?