i will admit that something a bit like this sometimes happens in computer science (grant application to cover the cost of something you’ve just done; you know it’s possible, because you’ve just done it)
some years ago, I am giving a presentation to some senior honchos from our own Ministry of Defense, and afterwards I get asked about exactly this,. “so, you’re saying it’s like how people handled the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union?” asks military dude who knows about Russia. Me, who knows how the sausages are made in academic research: “Basically, yes.”
so, maybe. Happens sometimes.
P.S. Was actually MoD, rather than DoD. DARPA principal investigators can also encounter a tough crowd.
P.P.S. And then theres the EU ones, where as PI you get a questioning that feels like a combination of your thesis defense and being audited by the tax authorities, and you gave no idea which type of question might be next,
Unlike the EU, DARPA is very fond of contract extensions, so you get “ok, we’ll pay you to do phase 1 of this, and if it works and we like it we might think about negotiating a contract extension for phase II” … which possibly reduces the need for PIs to adopt the Soviet Union Five Year Plan strategy, (like, you might really not have done phase I at the point where you’re negotiating a contract to do it).
There is an argument to the effect that if you can write down in advance what you’re going to discover by doing an experiment, then it is not, in fact, scientific research....
i will admit that something a bit like this sometimes happens in computer science (grant application to cover the cost of something you’ve just done; you know it’s possible, because you’ve just done it)
some years ago, I am giving a presentation to some senior honchos from our own Ministry of Defense, and afterwards I get asked about exactly this,. “so, you’re saying it’s like how people handled the Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union?” asks military dude who knows about Russia. Me, who knows how the sausages are made in academic research: “Basically, yes.”
so, maybe. Happens sometimes.
P.S. Was actually MoD, rather than DoD. DARPA principal investigators can also encounter a tough crowd.
P.P.S. And then theres the EU ones, where as PI you get a questioning that feels like a combination of your thesis defense and being audited by the tax authorities, and you gave no idea which type of question might be next,
Unlike the EU, DARPA is very fond of contract extensions, so you get “ok, we’ll pay you to do phase 1 of this, and if it works and we like it we might think about negotiating a contract extension for phase II” … which possibly reduces the need for PIs to adopt the Soviet Union Five Year Plan strategy, (like, you might really not have done phase I at the point where you’re negotiating a contract to do it).
There is an argument to the effect that if you can write down in advance what you’re going to discover by doing an experiment, then it is not, in fact, scientific research....