>> a little bit to cover your summer salary (which is an insane concept if you ask me). It's a brilliant concept though if you look at it another way. Imagine

>> a little bit to cover your summer salary (which is an insane concept if you ask me). It's a brilliant concept though if you look at it another way. Imagine the university has $120k per year allocated to your salary. Is it better for them to pay you 10k a month for 12 months, or 20k a month for 6 months? You're seeing this as "they should pay you 20k a month for 12 months", but that option is not on the table (your post pays 120k). By paying you 120k over say 9 months, they set your-value- at 160k. So you're free to get extra grant money, consulting gigs, whatever. For grant purposes they're capping your income at 160k,not 120k.