When you ask people overly simplistic and broad “gotcha” questions in a provocative and accusatory manner, you shouldn’t be surprised to receive glib uninformative answers. If you develop genuine professional relationships with Program Officers and Scientific Review Officers within NIH and treat them like the fellow scientists they are, you will receive thoughtful honest answers.
About the Author
Freethought Blogs
- A Million Gods
- Ace of Clades
- Alethian Worldview
- Almost Diamonds
- Ashley Miller
- Biodork
- Black Skeptics
- Blag Hag
- Brute Reason
- Butterflies and Wheels
- Comradde PhysioProffe
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- En Tequila Es Verdad
- Greta Christina's Blog
- Heteronormative Patriarchy for Men
- Lousy Canuck
- Mano Singham
- Maryam Namazie
- Nirmukta on FTB
- No Country for Women
- Pharyngula
- Reasonable Doubts
- Richard Carrier Blogs
- Rock Beyond Belief
- The Atheist Experience
- The Crommunist Manifesto
- The Digital Cuttlefish
- The Indelible Stamp
- The Zingularity
- This Week in Christian Nationalism
- YEMMYnisting
- Zinnia Jones
PostsCommentsArchives
Recent Posts
- Why It’s Great To Be A Yankees Fan
- Republican Filth Getting What They Want: Pregnant Women Fired For Keeping A Bottle Of Water To Drink From Regularly Under Doctor’s Orders
- Republican Filth Getting What They Want: Delusional Woman-Hating Congressfuckes Claiming That 15-Week Male Fetuses Spank Their Monkeys
- How Not To Administer A Mail Server
- Republican Filth Getting What They Want: Denying Education To Urban Children Because Greedy White Racist Suburban Pigges Don’t Want To Pay Taxes
- Are You Fucken Kidding Me!?!?!?!? (UPDATED TWICE)
- Fucken White-Ass Golf Douches
- Pengasm Reader Poll
- Republican Filth Getting What They Want: Shutting Down The Legislative Branch
- AAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Recent Comments
Archives
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
FTB RecentFTB Active
FTB Recent
- Skepticon No Longer Accepting CFI Sponsorship by Greta Christina
- Please Link Me Your Pissed-At-CFI-Board Links by Dana Hunter
- Elijah Cummings ruins Darryl Issa's day by Stephen "DarkSyde" Andrew
- Dennet's prediction by aronra
- Race, American Atheists and "The Movement" by blackskeptics
- Our local universe by Taslima Nasreen
FTB Active
- Just how racist is America? by PZ Myers
- More documenting the harassment by Ophelia Benson
- Malestrom pt 1: The rights and wrongs of anger by Ally Fogg
- An Open Letter to the Center for Inquiry, Withdrawing My Participation and Support by Greta Christina
- News from down under: the TRUE skeptical women side with the guys! by Jason Thibeault
- Why Your Daughter's Marriage Shouldn't Be Your Biggest Dream For Her by Anita J
Support FTB
Make a donation...
Make a recurring donation...
Events
3 comments
Pascale
April 13, 2011 at 10:13 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Perhaps, or perhaps not.
Beaker
April 13, 2011 at 10:51 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This has been my experience. When communicating with Program Officers, if you frame your question in a way that allows them to frame their answer in programmatic terminology, you will receive useful information. If you send them a draft of an aims page and ask how to improve it to best fit their NIH portfolio (or suggest a better portfolio), they will help. If instead you ask why the hell did my last application get reviewed by fucken idiot reviewer 3, your answer might be no more than a sentence or two.
On a related note, in what situations is it appropriate/inappropriate to discuss issues with an SRO rather than a Program Officer? I know you cannot discuss details of a prior review, but is it appropriate to pitch you new ideas to the SRO, bypassing the Program Officer? After all, the SRO is more intimately aware of what topics have a chance to score well in the study section.
DrugMonkey
April 15, 2011 at 6:32 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I am trying to imagine PP engaging someone in a non-”provocative” manner…