Navigating Grantland Part 1

A few weeks ago I received word that a small research project proposal that I submitted had gotten funding approval from the sponsoring company. Terrific! My first research grant! This is a big event for me. Most of the grant funds will be used to purchase another phantom, but first there’s paperwork to be filled out. And I’ll have to navigate the hospital’s research and grant administration process. Fine, no problem. There are plenty of people around here with lots of experience in this kind of thing.
First snag I encounter is that I learn is that the hospital takes 25% off the top for overhead. Ok, nobody told me about that when I was coming up with a budget for my proposal so I might have to go back and say I’ll need more money. But the people helping me with this tell me that I can probably get an exemption from this overhead charge. Good.
Then, I discover that because I don’t have a faculty appointment I can’t be the principle investigator (PI) for the grant. I guess the hospital doesn’t want to take research money brought in by the unwashed and unlearned masses. But there’s yet another exemption that can be applied for that will take a couple of weeks for approval. Fortunately the physician I’m going to be working with is faculty, so he can be the PI instead. I’ll just be the one doing all the work. Maybe I’ll be able to call myself a co-PI. In any case, I don’t think it’ll be a big deal. Sounds like it’s just one of those administrative things. My project, my paper/poster/abstract. First author is what it’s all about.
So now all I need to do is finish up responding to the questions from the sponsoring company, wait for the paperwork to be filled out and hopefully I’ll be able to start this project soon.