[robwwilliams]

Massively burdensome? No, it is an absolutely essential process that over the last 80 years of “industrial academic research” has brought us wonders and insights.

Three to four months to design. write, and refine a 13 page document is working at a very leisurely pace in my opinion (43 years of writing more than 100 applications).

And yes, I do think AI systems can improve much of this process and result in much stronger science.

[pcrh]

You forgot to include the 1-1.5 years of pilot data needed for a typical biomedical science (wet lab) grant proposal.

Essentially, the overall return on research investment for academic biomedical researchers themselves as a whole is negative. Which is why a substantial subsidy in the form of underpaid students, etc, is needed.

There are a few top performers who achieve a positive return from grant applications. A more streamlined and less fickle review process would be indeed improve matters, though I very much doubt LLMs in their current state of development will help this process.