> I've never, ever heard of anything like this occurring. There are some really odd interactions between funders' and universities' rules. Many places won't le

> I've never, ever heard of anything like this occurring. There are some really odd interactions between funders' and universities' rules. Many places won't let non-permanent staff be the "lead researcher"/PI/whatever on grants, particularly if the grant or contract has specific "deliverables" or if the grant runs longer than than employee's contract. These policies are probably well-intentioned--you can't really commit to an employee doing three years of research if they may not even be employed here next year--but they can lead to aggravating catch-22 situations where people could have the job if there was funding, but they can't get the funding because they don't have the job...