C'est la vie
This morning I read an interesting article in the newspaper (de Volkskrant): Duivel schijt op de grootste hoop, ook in de wetenschap (In Dutch). In short, three Dutch social scientists just published in PNAS what we all knew (perhaps I should have written suspected). Getting a research project helps to get more projects. This is called the “Matthew effect”, early successes increase future success chances.
This is nice but it comes at a cost. Those young researchers that do not a grant at the beginning of their careers might get into trouble later on... In the words of Thijs Bol, the leading author of the PNAS paper: ‘Het probleem van het Mattheus-effect is dat het een groep uitstekende jonge wetenschappers uitsluit, nadat ze ooit de pech hebben gehad net buiten de boot te vallen’. Interestingly they also found that the majority of the "loosers' are, in fact, as good as the winners (similar publication rates and quality of work). Yet, they get less grants/projects than early winners. Worrisome but C'est la vie... I can only say, keep on being hungry for knowledge, keep on doing good work and keep on trying. Good luck.