$10m is a lot of money for some fields, but in the scheme of high tech and high reward biological/chemical/physical research it really isn't. Personnel overhead

$10m is a lot of money for some fields, but in the scheme of high tech and high reward biological/chemical/physical research it really isn't. Personnel overhead alone for a reasonably sized group (10-20) can range from $2m on the low end, up to 5 or 6 million on the high end. For example, at many institutions it takes ~$250k to support a single researcher (Salary, health/personal insurance, institutional insurance) .