Funding is a mess. Systems designed by politicians who think or pretend there is a market with scientists competing. But without actual consumers buying stuff it is all so utterly fake. It is close to calling it competition that companies in the Soviet Union were lobbying the central planners.
The high overhead is naturally not nice for the scientists applying for project funding, makes it harder to get funded, but may be a feature, not a bug. In Germany we nowadays also get some overhead, in the past it was even zero (for the German Science Foundation). But there are still fixed costs, for the building, light, water, maintenance, secretarial support, bookkeeping and so on. So the base funding of the university was used for the overhead and the project funding determined nearly fully what research was done while only funding part of the university.
true, there’s always going to be some overhead stuff to consider. it’s just frustrating as it feels like every year they ask more from us and give us less. i want to do my research, and i want to help others with theirs, but i also need to be able to afford rent & groceries, lol.
the current systems of funding i think encourage some absolutely terrible behaviour and waste huge amounts of time/energy. everyone seems to hate this circus, yet it keeps on going!
Funding is a mess. Systems designed by politicians who think or pretend there is a market with scientists competing. But without actual consumers buying stuff it is all so utterly fake. It is close to calling it competition that companies in the Soviet Union were lobbying the central planners.
The high overhead is naturally not nice for the scientists applying for project funding, makes it harder to get funded, but may be a feature, not a bug. In Germany we nowadays also get some overhead, in the past it was even zero (for the German Science Foundation). But there are still fixed costs, for the building, light, water, maintenance, secretarial support, bookkeeping and so on. So the base funding of the university was used for the overhead and the project funding determined nearly fully what research was done while only funding part of the university.
true, there’s always going to be some overhead stuff to consider. it’s just frustrating as it feels like every year they ask more from us and give us less. i want to do my research, and i want to help others with theirs, but i also need to be able to afford rent & groceries, lol.
the current systems of funding i think encourage some absolutely terrible behaviour and waste huge amounts of time/energy. everyone seems to hate this circus, yet it keeps on going!