Very Real

Yesterday, along with welcoming my new crew, I received the draft contract for my big two-year second-stage contract. Seeing it all in writing makes it very real indeed. Day two down. I think I'm getting to like this.

I hadn't written about it before, but my meeting last week with the agency technical lead on my little contract went well. Well enough that, though it's quite a challenge that's been laid down, I think there's a real chance we could turn that into a second-stage contract as well, which would mean another 2-1/2 years on that project as well. Only time will tell. But I'm willing to give it my best effort.

Only two firms were chosen for the first stage, which means (while it's not guaranteed that a second part will be funded) the chances after recieving a first stage award are very good. They only initiate a project if they expect to fund at least one effort to second stage.

And more possible projects keep presenting themselves. As my friend B* recently commented on this blog, "success with current R&D funding makes it more likely" to gain future funding. Sounds good to me.