Winning the grant is the easy part. What you do in the months after determines whether that funder ever gives you money again.

On this episode, Andrew sits down with Melissa Weber, co-CEO of Pisces Oceans, to talk about the part of grant work nobody teaches: managing the project once the money lands. Melissa built her research administration expertise through a PhD at the University of Ottawa, years working with Inuit communities on fieldwork funding, and her time since joining Pisces during the pandemic. She and Andrew break down what happens between the congratulations email and the final report, from finalizing the contribution agreement to tracking every dollar against a budget that funders will eventually question.

Melissa walks through the systems she relies on: a separate tracking spreadsheet with a committed and obligations column, notes logged in real time so nothing depends on memory two years later, and a running list of highly qualified personnel kept in whatever format the funder asks for. She also covers the harder parts, like why year one of a multi year grant almost never gets the full runway you planned for, how equipment lead times and research vessel scheduling quietly eat into your timeline, and why flagging a problem to your funder early, with a proposed solution attached, is what actually protects the relationship.

The throughline is that managing a grant well is what builds the kind of funder relationship that gets you funded again. For ocean leaders running their first project or their fiftieth, this episode is the playbook for that shift from grant writer to grant manager.

Takeaways:

• Set up your tracking system on day one: a dedicated spreadsheet with committed and obligations columns, and notes logged as decisions happen so you're never reconstructing history from memory.
• When something slips, tell your funder early and bring a proposed solution with you, not just the problem.
• Track highly qualified personnel (HQP) and collaborator details in the exact format your funder reports in, from the start of the project.
• Build in slack for delays. Vessel time, equipment lead times, and slow contribution agreements routinely eat into a "solid" year one.
• Treat reporting and transparency as relationship building, not paperwork. It's what gets you funded again.

Website: https://www.piscesoceans.ca/
Set up a meeting to discuss your ocean project: https://www.piscesoceans.ca/contact