As a PI turned research administrator, I would like to say that, in
general, I've found the discussion regarding deadlines uplifting.  In
that vein, I'd like to share a personal story from my PI day's.

The largest award I ever received, was a 2.5 million dollar award from
NIH in the area of drug abuse prevention.  The proposal involved
coordination with a number of community agencies, and was very difficult
to write.  To make a long story short, I got it to our Sponsored
Programs office in the afternoon of the day before the receipt date.
They made sure I got it back, and even though I had to drive to that
warehouse that nobody can find in Bethesda, Maryland the next day, the
proposal was funded.  The result, aside from being able to conduct a
project that literally saved lives, was to put around $100,000 a year in
F & A moneys in the University's budget for the next five years.  We
could probably even get two economists to agree that bending the rules
for the proposal was a decent tradeoff--in the event my old research
administrator is reading this I need to add the disclaimer that this
wasn't the only time me, or my team ever pushed a deadline.

Having said all of that, their are times I could absolutely strangle
some PIs that act just like I did when I was a PI, but empathy precludes
it--and the result of doing whatever it takes is pretty much the same as
in the story I've just told.  We get awards!

John M. Cavendish, Ed.D., J.D.
Director of Sponsored Research and Contracts
Southeastern Louisiana University