Stacy L ChinFounder, KeepYourEquity · I get the government to write you checks

Smart Budgeting for Successful R&D

2 Jul 2025 · 0 min

Watch on YouTube

0:27

In this segment of the YouTube presentation "Smart Budgeting for Successful R&D," the speaker emphasizes the critical link between a well‑crafted budget and the credibility of an R&D proposal. The speaker warns against two common pitfalls: (1) requesting inflated salaries paired with unrealistic effort percentages, which undermines the perceived seriousness of the proposal, and (2) proposing impossible timelines, such as compressing two years of work into six months, which reviewers quickly flag as unrealistic. The advice is to align salary requests and effort levels with actual responsibilities and to set timelines that reflect the true scope of work, thereby increasing the likelihood that reviewers will take the proposal seriously.

So if you don't take the budget seriously, they won't take your proposal seriously. Number 8, inflated salaries with unrealistic hours. Asking for max salary at 5% effort, that just won't fly. Be reasonable by aligning your time with your responsibility and make sure your budget effort levels matches the role. 9, impossible timelines. Are you trying to do 2 years of work in just 6 months? No way. Reviewers will dot that immediately due to unrealistic expectations.