scientific proposal, letters of recommendation, and productivity. The candidates believed that since they spent a significant amount of time and effort preparing a proposal, the least they could expect in return was some sort of guidance on how to improve subsequent proposals.

There were also several complaints that there appeared to be a “coast-bias” in that the majority of the awardees came from either the West or East Coast of the United States, and that this in some way was a form of cherry-picking. The third theme that appeared was that there was an apparent lack of diversity in the awardees; nearly all Scholars were white males.