Makoto Nozaki

I don't know the Grants Committee ever published the annual budget. I see reasons to do so and not to do, but let's do it. Transparency is a good thing.

Conclusion first. The Grants Committee's budget for 2014 is $16,000.

Here is how it works.

Rule #1: The committee evaluates and funds grants every two months. At the point of funding, the money is "spent".

Suppose you submit a grant proposal of $3,000. Your proposal is great, the community feedback is all positive, and your grant is funded. At this point, we have spent the money; it's like putting the $3000 in a special envelope that has your name on it. The money is still in the TPF safe but it is reserved for you.

Rule #2: We are out of the money when all the money is spent for the year.

Suppose our budget was $9,000. If we funded three grants each of which is worth $3000, we would be done for the year. No more grants would be funded even if these grants were still running. We would not have CFP in this scenario.

Rule #3: Grant cancellation brings the money back.

Grants are cancelled at times. We open the "envelope" and put the money back into the allocatable pool. We are back in business and resume the CFP process.

Where we are right now

We have two running grants which are worth $4,800 in total, so we have $11,200 allocatable for the rest of the calendar year 2014.

Note that the committee is not obliged to use all the money. On the other hand, the committee may choose to use all the money early.

When you apply, therefore, don't try to calculate your proposal based on the budget we have. For instance, it would be a mistake if you define your grant as $11,200 / 3 just because there are three remaining rounds. While the budget is one factor, ultimately your grant value should not be influenced by the budget we have.