frankly i think grants are much worse; subject to politico manipulation, a lot of handwaving and results often not delivered  a lot of the budget wasted; really if you have seen how govt grants are this is how many end up. 

JUST F'CKING DO IT. There are NOT many people doing dev work in this space anyway so the chance anything is not going to get reviewed or recognized is pretty low. 

fwiw, if you are a new dev and you don't have work experience, this is a great way to get your work reviewed and improve. I don't think you can improve when you are in a silo, at all. of course you can chose never to improve and just rest on your laurels, that's fine too.