Grant announcements are on hold, with speculation that the Australian Research Council announced delay is due to it working on the “national interest test” Education Minister Dan Tehan wants (CMM November 1 and CMM November 6). Among all the deploregrams about the sticking in of the ministerial bib Emma Johnston makes the point that the extra wait is seriously stuffing scholars around. The president of Science and Technology Australia and UNSW science dean says researchers are still waiting – for the results of applications submitted at the start of the year, with peer review responses in June.

“More than 9 months after their application went in – they are still waiting to hear the outcome for research projects that are meant to begin in January.” This means those with the stomach for it are now thinking about new applications which will need to go in before, or not far after they learn about their last ones.

“Researchers are in limbo,” Professor Johnston says.

The way grant timetables are organised is a perennial problem for researchers who have, or would like to, lives outside lab and library.Back in 2014 Danielle Herbert (then QUT) and colleagues reported their survey of National Health and Medical Research Council applicants which found grant-writing made summer tough for applicants with young families.