The one missing part of your understanding: grants are generally reviewed by researcher-peers, not really &quot;funding institutions&quot;. Your proposal is read by other researches, scores are given to the grant and then a cutoff score is determined. All grants above that score are funded, those below are not.<p>This doesn&#x27;t really change your conclusion, that grant writing is an important skill for acquiring funding but it&#x27;s not about impressing the funding institution, it&#x27;s about impressing fellow scientists.