I've kept myself busy, but this is a good kind of "busy". It is similar to painters getting busy to paint, or dancers to dance. Although some professional pain is involved, it is not really a painful pain.
The very first thing for grant writing is to decide the scope of the proposal and what to do.
Once the scope and the aims are decided, I can write down "Specific Aims" section. Then, I determine what will be needed to achieve the aims.
When "what will be needed" is determined, next question is "who will be doing which part". Here comes the need for team building.
Past 2-3 weeks were the time for the team building. We do have core skills and expertise to complete a majority of the aims. But there are some that we better ask for help. True, we "can" do them in our lab. But with help from experts, getting the job done will be easier and the outcome will be better.
Many traditional Role Playing Games have taught us that we need a Hero, a Wizard, a Cleric and a Thief to eventually slay the Dragon and save the Princess. People with different skills are needed to achieve a goal. Time to use what we learned.
Perhaps, slicing and dicing the aims into smaller tasks and outsource as much parts as we can to outside experts and specialists to get them done efficiently; that may be the fitting style for conducting a science project in the 21st century. "Do everything in house" is obsolete, I'm afraid.
Anyway, we need to collaborate some parts of the project.
To set up collaborations, an important thing to consider is "what's in it for me and for them". Only mutually beneficial, win-win collaboration would work.
In this case, luckily we have a win-win project very interesting for both sides. Team building has been going smoothly.
I'll be working on the proposals for upcoming months, along with some other related work. It will be fun for me, although some will not get why I'm saying it will be fun.
["The Fellowship of the Ring"]
[At an early stage of an adventure, there is usually a "team building" phase. "Seven Samurai" follows the same pattern.]
