NSERC grant selection committee

I am meeting in Ottawa as part of the NSERC grant selection committee for computer science. This is a brutal exercise due to rather limited amount of funds in a growing area. In theory it would be nice to give every applicant a lot of meny, but it practice one can't do that. On the other hand, I think the process is very fair with a lot of discussion and a good-sized commitee that looks carefully at every grant applicantion.

Gearing up for this exercise was a lot of work. Computer science it divided into two different fund committees, based on the sibject of the proposal. The committee I am on has about 13 members and we each had to read a lot of proposals over the preceding 2 months. In the end, each proposal gets examined by about 6 people. I will be a relief simply to get rid of the 4-foot high pile of documents that have been haunting me.