I was referring to academic politics. That is, professors steering funding to their niches and trying to dry out alternative ideas. I think DARPA and other age

I was referring to academic politics. That is, professors steering funding to their niches and trying to dry out alternative ideas. I think DARPA and other agencies trying to imitate them (e.g. Wellcome Leap) are less prone to manipulation and much more fact-driven. Howard Hughes Medical Institute is also good. As a European, I hate ERC. In some cases, they have not even bothered to discontinue funding principal investigators known to have committed fraud and who had to retract major publications.