I’m waiting to find out if my big grant proposal will be rejected without review on an über-technicality.
Hold on while I refresh my email again… nope, still no news.
The error was a small omission of part of a section; basically a poor copy-paste job. It wasn’t my error, but I should have caught it before submitting, as should about eight other people involved in this process – some of whose job description is to catch technical errors in grant proposals, none of whom did – but in the end it’s my proposal, and I’m the one who should have caught it.
I may be allowed to fix the error, or I may be rejected on the spot, without even any helpful feedback (which is half the reason to apply for these things – even if you don’t get the funding, the feedback is valuable).
Isn’t this fun? Suspense! (whimper) Hold on while I refresh my email again…
Tough Little Birds 
what was the error?
I hope that the e-mail that eventually shows up is a good one. I will be up near Yosemite for Thanksgiving and the rest of the week. I will keep my eyes open for Juncos.
Thanks!
Enjoy your holiday! I’m sure you’ll see juncos up there. If you see any with colored leg bands, try to note down the colors!
Wahhh the same thing just happened to me!! One of my recommenders accidentally sent his letter of rec in an hour after the deadline for this mega NOAA grant I spent ages on, now I’m disqualified. Mann! I hope yours has better luck.
And your blog actually caught my eye because I read a super cool article earlier today about Juncos, here it is if you haven’t seen it already! http://scienceline.org/2012/10/becoming-city-birds/
Wow, they really disqualified you for that? Is there someone you can call – or have the recommender call – to beg for mercy? I never applied to NOAA but when I applied for my NSF predoc one of my recommenders submitted late (their system is set up such that it looks like you’ve submitted the rec before you actually have – you have to upload and then click Save, or something) and NSF let him submit the letter still. A late rec letter seems like exactly the situation for leniency, since it’s not even remotely your fault!
And thanks for the article! It doesn’t surprise me – my mountain juncos are much more nervous around people than the campus ones.
Yeah I called and emailed like crazy for a few days, and when I finally got a hold of someone they said they were “legally bound to adhere to the deadline”…which sounds way too intense for this grant but oh well. I actually JUST heard that a NOAA affiliate in American Samoa sent in a letter of support for my proposal just because, so they’re using that as the second letter! Phew :) I owe that lady a beer (or fifty).