Well funding individual 'projects' as an academic is fairly modern, at least as such a standard practice. It is conceivable simply to have salaried researchers

Well funding individual 'projects' as an academic is fairly modern, at least as such a standard practice. It is conceivable simply to have salaried researchers researching whatever takes their interest (or came up at last night's champagne reception). Of course practical experiments and equipment complicates it a bit, but not necessarily much.