Of HQPs and KM plans

I don't know why this latest round of grant proposal writing sapped my drive to write blog posts.  But the last of the three proposals (to NSERC, Canada's equivalent of NSF) is pretty much done, and I'm turning my mind to doing some experiments.

But first, some NSERC acronyms:

NSERC:  (I have to check every time...)  Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

HQP:  NSERC is obsessed with training of 'highly qualified personnel'.  Fully one third of the proposal's score is determined by our past production of HQP and our plans for producing HQPs from whatever trainees our successful grant might support.  Both have to be meticulously documented, on penalto of having your proposal dumped in the recycling bin.


KM:  I had to Google this one.  The 'NSERC Tips and Tricks' document kindly provided by our research services people  recommends that our research plan includes comments on open access (for sure!), and follows this with:

If results are appropriate for open dissemination, what is your KM plan? If results are not appropriate, mention why.

Google says that KM is knowledge mobilization (this cracked the post-doc up).  So now my HQP training plan says that "Everyone is encouraged to keep an open research blog, providing both writing experience and knowledge mobilization."