Why it's important to get everything right in proposal development

Competition is up for federal research grant funding, as everyone in the research field will tell you.  The authors of a report entitled Why Funding Cuts At The NIH Are So Painful have assembled important information on research funding from the NIH and its impact on the US research community.

In 2003, NIH spent $2.4 billion on competing R01 grants, its principal mechanism for supporting the investigator-initiated research projects that have been the primary source of progress in the biomedical sciences. By 2006, after three years of steady declines, NIH spent $2.1 billion on competing grants, a loss of 11.1 percent before factoring in the effects of inflation. With the increased cost of research grants, this funding shortfall translates into a sizeable decline in the number of awards for new or renewed grants (figures included in source).

Against this backdrop,

Medical schools, universities, teaching hospitals and other research organizations have embarked upon major, long-term programs of expansion of biomedical research, building new laboratories and renovating existing facilities.

Science research is intrinsically important to the US in many dimensions. That's why it's important to use every advantage you have to succeed in proposal development and submission.