I think comparing Harvard to a research group is a type error, though. Research groups don’t typically do this. I am not going to defend Unis shaking alums down for money, especially given what they do with it.
I think comparing Harvard to a research group is a type error, though.
I know several research groups where the PI’s sole role is fundraising, despite them having much more funding than the average research group.
My point was more generic—it’s not obvious to me why you would expect groups to think “okay, we have enough resources, let’s stop trying to acquire more” instead of “okay, we have enough resources to take our ambitions to the next stage.” The American Cancer Society has about a billion dollar budget, and yet they aren’t saying “yeah, this is enough to deal with cancer, we don’t need your money.”
(It may be the case that a particular professor stops writing grant applications, because they’re limited by attention they can give to their graduate students. But it’s not like any of those professors will say “yeah, my field is big enough, we don’t need any more professor slots for my students to take.”)
In my experience, research groups exist inside universities or a few corporations like Google. The senior members are employed and paid for by the institution, and only the postgrads, postdocs, and equipment beyond basic infrastructure are funded by research grants. None of them fly “in orbit” by themselves but only as part of a larger entity. Where should an independent research group like MIRI seek permanent funding?
By “in orbit” I mean “funded by grants rather than charity.” If a group has a steady grant research stream, that means they are doing good enough work that funding agencies continue to give them money. This is the standard way to be self-sustaining for a research group.
I think comparing Harvard to a research group is a type error, though. Research groups don’t typically do this. I am not going to defend Unis shaking alums down for money, especially given what they do with it.
I know several research groups where the PI’s sole role is fundraising, despite them having much more funding than the average research group.
My point was more generic—it’s not obvious to me why you would expect groups to think “okay, we have enough resources, let’s stop trying to acquire more” instead of “okay, we have enough resources to take our ambitions to the next stage.” The American Cancer Society has about a billion dollar budget, and yet they aren’t saying “yeah, this is enough to deal with cancer, we don’t need your money.”
(It may be the case that a particular professor stops writing grant applications, because they’re limited by attention they can give to their graduate students. But it’s not like any of those professors will say “yeah, my field is big enough, we don’t need any more professor slots for my students to take.”)
In my experience, research groups exist inside universities or a few corporations like Google. The senior members are employed and paid for by the institution, and only the postgrads, postdocs, and equipment beyond basic infrastructure are funded by research grants. None of them fly “in orbit” by themselves but only as part of a larger entity. Where should an independent research group like MIRI seek permanent funding?
By “in orbit” I mean “funded by grants rather than charity.” If a group has a steady grant research stream, that means they are doing good enough work that funding agencies continue to give them money. This is the standard way to be self-sustaining for a research group.