Petra...we just had our big Ross Sea scientific drilling proposal rejected last week...but we think it may be funded next time....but the next deadline is June, we won't know if we are funded until the end of 2006, and we won't see any of the money until 2007...or later..
of the 7 reviews, one ended with the fairly unbelievable:
"My only reason for not giving an excellent rating is that by not being an expert in the aspects of the Oligocene and Miocene climatology, I am concerned that my eye is not discriminating enough to have spotted smaller weaknesses in the proposal."
The reviews and panel summary were kind of strange...they had no real problem with the science...but some wanted us to be doing something different than what we proposed, and others, as we expected, had problems with the chance of success with the coring system.
This was NSF.
Where are you and this geologist proposing? Private source? If government source, you and the geologist need to be able to write an excellent proposal in a scientific style. It would also help if you were leaving a documented trail of successful predictions, which you are not now doing on this page...
Chris