From the archive: Fine-tuning a Standard Grant

Project-management prowess is as important as excellent science

This 2019 interview with Daniel Parsons, a professor in sedimentology at the University of Hull and director of its Energy and Environment Institute, is for all those who intend to use the summer break to plot a bid to their home Research Council’s responsive-mode scheme.

As a former Natural Environment Research Council panellist, Parsons, who was appointed to NERC’s science committee in January this year, knew that otherwise excellent bids could sink if their prosaic project-management elements were not watertight. So he made sure his proposal investigating deep-ocean currents in the Congo Canyon would not fall into that category. Similarly, Parsons’ other tips should resonate with those readying an application to other councils this summer.