Because it is Sunday night and I should be finishing a research proposal I am instead drinking whiskey and writing this post.
It has been nearly two years since I started my postdoc in New Zealand (! Yes, two years! Where did the days go…). I have 1 year left on this project, so it is getting time again to cautiously think about the Future. Now that I have New Zealand residence, and in two years will be eligible for Permanent Residence, it seems a good idea to stick around for those two years at least. With permanent residence, we can leave NZ and always come back, regardless of age, financial situation or work. (And I still somehow hope it will make it easier to get Canadian residence as well. Don't ask me why. I just imagine that showing we have managed residence for 1 country, will give us superpowers in the eyes of other immigration officials)
There is a funding body in NZ that gives early-career researchers the chance to submit a proposal by themselves, bidding for 3 year project funding. It was proposed that I could try obtaining this funding. With the grumpy American old men’s words about government money being wasted on pointless research still ringing in my head, I found myself in a situation where I would love to squander more government money.
The funding agency has a nice system in that you first submit a 1 page proposal outline, of which a lucky few are selected and invited to submit a full proposal. This is fantastic, because you have to write only 1 page of brilliant ideas and methods, and if you’re not selected you haven’t wasted 6 weeks of your time on a 20 page research proposal. That comes in the second round.
Nevertheless, to write in 1 page why you can solve all the mysteries that soil chemistry and soil biology still hold for the world, is to say the least, not done in a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I am not sure I’ll be able to push my idea through to the actual funding round, but it is a good practice in writing proposals and brushing up on the latest methods in soil science. (they don't get less expensive either. But who could expect that messing with isotopes and DNA would be cheap?) Not to mention the lovely visions of more fieldwork in New Zealand forests. Or maybe this project will be more lab-based…???
It has been nearly two years since I started my postdoc in New Zealand (! Yes, two years! Where did the days go…). I have 1 year left on this project, so it is getting time again to cautiously think about the Future. Now that I have New Zealand residence, and in two years will be eligible for Permanent Residence, it seems a good idea to stick around for those two years at least. With permanent residence, we can leave NZ and always come back, regardless of age, financial situation or work. (And I still somehow hope it will make it easier to get Canadian residence as well. Don't ask me why. I just imagine that showing we have managed residence for 1 country, will give us superpowers in the eyes of other immigration officials)
There is a funding body in NZ that gives early-career researchers the chance to submit a proposal by themselves, bidding for 3 year project funding. It was proposed that I could try obtaining this funding. With the grumpy American old men’s words about government money being wasted on pointless research still ringing in my head, I found myself in a situation where I would love to squander more government money.
The funding agency has a nice system in that you first submit a 1 page proposal outline, of which a lucky few are selected and invited to submit a full proposal. This is fantastic, because you have to write only 1 page of brilliant ideas and methods, and if you’re not selected you haven’t wasted 6 weeks of your time on a 20 page research proposal. That comes in the second round.
Nevertheless, to write in 1 page why you can solve all the mysteries that soil chemistry and soil biology still hold for the world, is to say the least, not done in a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I am not sure I’ll be able to push my idea through to the actual funding round, but it is a good practice in writing proposals and brushing up on the latest methods in soil science. (they don't get less expensive either. But who could expect that messing with isotopes and DNA would be cheap?) Not to mention the lovely visions of more fieldwork in New Zealand forests. Or maybe this project will be more lab-based…???
