I don't know
what it's like in your field right now - bioethics isn't it? - but to hang about on a chance of funding you may very well not get...well, I would be reluctant to say the least, given the sparsity of awards right now. I know for a fact everyone in our research institute with grants finishing soon are pissing themselves because every grant application that's gone in has been rejected. If your funding body can say you have an excellent chance of getting it after your original leave finishes, then see if you can push everything back. If it's less than 50/50, bust a gut in the time you've got. It's annoying, but hey.

Oh, and received* by the way
(berk, Tue 15 Jun 2010, 15:18, 2 replies)

I think sab funding isn't as hard as responsive mode right now
but yeah, I know the feeling. But the money's there, just not in traditional research council blue sky research proposals any more.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 15 Jun 2010, 15:22, closed)

Hmmmm.
I'm going to try to defer my "standard" sabbatical to S2. That way, I can start work on the book during S1 on an evenings-and-weekends-and-spare-afternoons basis - and my teaching load for S1 is always much lighter anyway. That way, if funding comes for a second semester - S1 of the 2011-12 academic year, it's a bonus.

I just need to persuade my HoD and publisher of the merits of this plan now.

As was pointed out by one of my colleagues to whom I was bellyaching - the lack of funding is likely to be a fact of life for everyone for the next few years. It's time to get devious about it.

But thank god I'm at a Russell group place: they at least seem to have some kind of safety cushion, even if it's paltry. I'd hate to be trying to maintain research output in a post-92 at the moment...

Arse!
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 15 Jun 2010, 17:42, closed)