Peer-reviewed research
To Apply or Not to Apply: A Survey Analysis of Grant Writing Costs and Benefits
Ted von Hippel and Courtney von Hippel, PLOS ONE, 2015 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0118494
Read the originalRead on October 19, 2026
- What it is
- A 2015 survey of 113 astronomers and 82 psychologists who had applied for federal research funding between 2009 and 2012, measuring the hours they spent writing grant proposals. In its results section it quotes the weekly hours of research and scholarly writing that faculty report in a national survey of 23,824 full-time faculty, by type of institution.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed. The grant-writing data are the authors' own small convenience sample of two fields. The weekly figures are not the authors' data: they are quoted from the 2010 to 2011 HERI Faculty Survey (Hurtado et al., 2012), a self-report survey, and the paper gives no year or country for it in the quoted sentence. The figures cover teaching semesters only.
Facts taken from this source
- In the national faculty survey that von Hippel and von Hippel (2015) quote, private four-year colleges spend an average of 5.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during teaching semesters.
“a survey [12] of 23,824 ... faculty at public universities, private universities, public ... spend an average of 10.7, 14.5, 5.6, and 5.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during the teaching semesters, respectively” (Results, paragraph comparing grant-writing hours with the national faculty survey)
- In the national faculty survey that von Hippel and von Hippel (2015) quote, private universities spend an average of 14.5 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during teaching semesters.
“a survey [12] of 23,824 ... faculty at public universities, private universities, public ... spend an average of 10.7, 14.5, 5.6, and 5.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during the teaching semesters, respectively” (Results, paragraph comparing grant-writing hours with the national faculty survey)
- In the national faculty survey that von Hippel and von Hippel (2015) quote, public four-year colleges spend an average of 5.6 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during teaching semesters.
“a survey [12] of 23,824 ... faculty at public universities, private universities, public ... spend an average of 10.7, 14.5, 5.6, and 5.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during the teaching semesters, respectively” (Results, paragraph comparing grant-writing hours with the national faculty survey)
- In the national faculty survey that von Hippel and von Hippel (2015) quote, public universities spend an average of 10.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during teaching semesters.
“a survey [12] of 23,824 ... faculty at public universities, private universities, public ... spend an average of 10.7, 14.5, 5.6, and 5.7 hours per week on research and scholarly writing during the teaching semesters, respectively” (Results, paragraph comparing grant-writing hours with the national faculty survey)