Member-only story
Grants live in the comfortable fiction that is merit. Don’t take it personally.
Something important to keep in mind when writing a grant is that meritocracies are under constant construction.
Allegedly, the concept of the modern meritocracy was created by a British writer in the nineteen-fifties. He wanted to warn people against the myth of embracing any objective human ranking, particularly one based on the shifting, nebulous tectonics of whatever constitutes socially perceived human intellectual talent and achievement at the present moment.
This British writer’s idea was co-opted for, among other things, a rationalization of the hiring practices that have made the UK into the classless beacon of blind equality that we know and love today.
Essentially, the writer failed to make his point.
What’s my point and what does this have to do with European grants?
It’s about perspective. Scientific achievement is, ultimately, subject to continuous human re-evaluation, and it probably always will be. What do I mean? Well…
1. Human potential is everywhere.
Let’s assume — better yet, let’s cite the abundant research that supports the suggestion that potential is scattered more or…
