GRANTING IS NOT INVESTING: No Risk, No Gain

Although sometimes we can frame research granting as investing in the future of humankind, granting money for research is not an investment per se. Even if the judges use the applicant’s past behavior and context—publications, lab, and supervisors—as a proxy for the probability of reaching the stated goal, there are two significant differences.

First, the people who decide to give you money do not expect to return it at all, not to mention profit on your project. Second, they grant you somebody’s money, not theirs, so there is no risk for them. No risk and no gain.

Consequently, decisions to grant or not grant, as well as sums allocated, might be entirely shaped by applicants’ past achievements, familiar names involved, and political agendas, but not by the application’s proposed endpoints and their potential benefit.  

{PSEUDOMONEY, VALUE, RESOURCE, ENDPOINT TIERS, ABUNDANCE OF RESOURCES, SUSTENANCE}