I can second this! Without an intention to sound whiny, I am sometimes astonished about the feedback I get when I propose to work on topological data analysis--

I can second this! Without an intention to sound whiny, I am sometimes astonished about the feedback I get when I propose to work on topological data analysis---the topic is still rather new and nascent, so of course there's a certain amount of risk involved. But in my experience, when you try to apply for funding that does not explicitly mention this 'high risk, high reward' dichotomy, you are in bad position. (that being said, I was happy to see that the Swiss National Science Foundation funded at least one of these proposals from me...but this was a pilot call, as far as I know, in which they were specifically soliciting these types of ideas)