If you don’t ask, you can’t get.

While the pressure to stay within the “norm” is increasing in this competition, it is important for applicants to remember that it is just as dangerous to lowball research expenses as it is to ask for too much. The key element to remember is that the budget and the research plan need to be linked. If the proposal includes projects that require 5 pairs of (graduate student) hands to meet the workload demands and the budget only asks for funds for one student (with no discussion of how the other four bodies will enter the project) – the applicant has effectively demonstrated that they do not know how to plan or manage research.

Many applicants devote all of their energy to writing the research plan without any thought towards the budget until the last few days before the deadline, then they ask their colleagues what the norm is for their field and plug that data into their budget forms. If you plan for a Porche and budget for a Smart Car, you are either going to be driving a Smart Car or not driving at all. The new scorecard system for binning applicants based on their budget request is going to make planning an appropriate budget an increasingly important element of Discovery Grant applications.

So how do you find out the norm? Ask colleagues, look at the statistical analysis of previous Discovery Grant competitions (links to: 2009 data, 2008 data), search through the NSERC award database to find out what competitive labs are receiving and then make a budget that is closely linked to the research plan.

While the GSGs are no more, looking up the min/average/max award amounts for the most relevant GSGs will help provide a ballpark of the normal funding levels for a particular field of study. This information is available from either the statistics links above or the NSERC Awards Search Engine. Some departments and/or research offices also keep records on the norm and might provide an opportunity to find out the budget breakdown in addition to the budget totals. It can’t hurt to ask – you never know what data might be shared.

While knowing the total award doesn’t tell the entire story and shouldn’t dictate the budget to apply for, it does give a guideline when writing a research plan to ensure that the plan (and linked budget) fall within a normal funding range for a particular field. This information is most useful for new applicants who are uncertain how to set their first budget, but is a good touchstone for returning applicants as well.