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A couple notes: 1. Industry funding comes with its own set of hassles. And overhead is still a thing for industry funding - sometimes the overhead rate is less
by Fomite 8y ago
A couple notes:
1. Industry funding comes with its own set of hassles. And overhead is still a thing for industry funding - sometimes the overhead rate is less, but there's been a lot more pushback against this from universities (which I actually think is quite fair).
2. Being able to buy out teaching loads is a function of funding, not necessarily this funding
3. In many institutions, salaries are fixed - what this does is cover a percentage of your salary you don't have to cover from other mechanisms, or let you buy out teaching, as you note. It would be interesting to know if the dual FAIR appointments work like that or not.
While private funding is awesome, and these labs are in a very good position, it should be noted that in most cases in my experience between NSF/NIH-style funding and an industry grant, the government grants last longer, are more flexible, and less of a hassle administratively.
- chriskanan 8y agoWhile all of what you say is correct for grants given to universities by industry, this isn't in the same class of activity. These professors are becoming FB employees, while still retaining their professorships. Some aren't even located at the same location as their university for 7 months of the year. Its almost like a yearly sabbatical with funding for your lab and far more resources.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]