What is your take on the seminars/workshops of the grantcentral.com folks?

[moebius_strip]

What is your take on the seminars/workshops of the grantcentral.com folks? Does any of you have experience with them? What is your take?

They also do workshops - I.e. they help with grant writing and review for technical content and grantmanship.

I think that this would be great for junior faculty (for their CAREER grants submissions).

I am thinking of bringing them to our department so I would like a bit of external feedback before engaging with them.

Also, do you know any other similar consultants/companies?

Thank you :)

[dismalist]

How much does it cost and who is paying?

Caveat emptor.

[moebius_strip]

I don't know the cost - yet. I emailed them.

The money will be coming out of a developmental grant I have. My main concern is if it's worth it or not.

[Vid]

Definitely worth it. I donot know this company much but any external help for reviewing your proposal is tremendous help. Thankfully we have this service at our university level.

[hazelshade]

I don't know the cost - yet. I emailed them.

The money will be coming out of a developmental grant I have. My main concern is if it's worth it or not.

I haven't personally attended any of their events, but I heard a rave review from a colleague a few years back.

[polly_mer]

Definitely worth it. I donot know this company much but any external help for reviewing your proposal is tremendous help. Thankfully we have this service at our university level.

I've seen expensive 'help' that was in fact harmful because the workshop was done by amateurs about grants in general that focused on the wrong things for the specific desired funder.

I know nothing about these particular folks, but I'd be wary of "help" that no one I know is recommending.  Sending folks to the NSF, NIH, or other workshops by the funder may be a better use of resources.  Having internal senior faculty present along with representatives from the internal grants and contracts department may be a better use of resources.

[hazelshade]

Another thing you can do, if you're already in communication with the company, is to ask them to give you some names of institutions they've worked with (ideally similar institutional types to yours, or ones where they've worked with folks in your discipline or have run CAREER workshops) so that you can follow up with those institutions to get a sense of what worked, what didn't, and what the ROI was like. When I've talked with some of the other for-profit grant support companies, they've been more than willing to do this and have often offered proactively to connect me to past customers (granted, the ones I have in mind are the type that can't be booked for less than a multi-year six-figure contract, and who's getting into that without doing serious vetting??).

[fizzycist]

I'm not optimistic. From their website: "The purpose of the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award is to create a teacher-scholar — a faculty member who, throughout his / her career, will use research to attract and motivate undergraduate students to learn better. "

This is not true. One can win a CAREER award without interacting with undergraduates at all. There needs to be a strong educational and outreach plan but it doesn't need to be targeted to undergrads. Could be K-12 teachers, high school students, grad students, adult learners, general public, etc.

Does your institution really not have any CAREER workshops? I believe NSF has some programs for career workshops run by POs that are free if admitted, e.g. https://nsf.gov/events/event_summ.jsp?cntn_id=302095&org=NSF

[moebius_strip]

I emailed them. They replied. The cost is 20k for a 1.5-day workshop + 4k per individual to do follow-ups with them and have them review a CAREER proposal.

[polly_mer]

What's their success rate on CAREER proposals?

How does that compare to your university in general?

[spork]

I emailed them. They replied. The cost is 20k for a 1.5-day workshop + 4k per individual to do follow-ups with them and have them review a CAREER proposal.

I'll lead a 1.5 day workshop for only $10K, with no additional charge for follow-up.

Maybe I should also open up a diploma mill in Pakistan.

[moebius_strip]

I emailed them. They replied. The cost is 20k for a 1.5-day workshop + 4k per individual to do follow-ups with them and have them review a CAREER proposal.

I'll lead a 1.5 day workshop for only $10K, with no additional charge for follow-up.

Maybe I should also open up a diploma mill in Pakistan.

LOL

20k is way too much. Yeh. We can spend that money in much better things.