4 ms·

I was pretty perturbed to discover an NSF grant I was involved with spent about 10% of the budget on-the-ground paying equipment and labor, while the other 90%

I was pretty perturbed to discover an NSF grant I was involved with spent about 10% of the budget on-the-ground paying equipment and labor, while the other 90% went towards the university department that arranged for the grant. Not that the department head didn’t put in many hours over years of effort to establish that grant (among others), but it just seemed like comingling funds to me as an outsider, like, the money didn’t go to what the grant said it was for except in a tertiary way of “the phd students have to come from somewhere” but through a series of fumbles no research really came out of the project, but at least a middle school got a makerspace out of it. I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a lot of people who have experienced what feels like government waste and voted for a party that promises to dismantle the bureaucracy, so I’m not surprised they’re making these moves. Will the world be worse off for it, probably. Will the current crop of billionaires make up for it by funding public institutions like the Carnegies and Rockefellers? Doubt it. Maybe Europe and Asia will pick up the slack (and brain drain the USA as a result)

jltsiren 2y ago
That sounds like a misunderstanding. Federal grants usually have excessively strict restrictions on what you can do with the money. To the extent that labs can't pay many reasonable expenses if they don't have other sources of funding. Unless the project is particularly material-heavy, direct costs should be mostly labor costs, such as PhD student stipends and tuition, postdoc salaries, and summer salary for the PI.
- thehoff 2y ago
  I agree that this may be a misunderstanding. Federal grant proposals require budgets that outline how you intend to spend those dollars along with text describing those line items. Some of this can be extremely detailed. These agencies have a lot of restrictions so yes, other sources are required in many cases. Then as you spend those funds many of these grants will require monthly or quarterly (or even more frequent) text and budget updates.
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    Granted I didn't see the budget breakdown, just the total and what I saw spent. Could have been salaries towards people whose work was invisible to me but still important to the grant.

jltsiren 2y ago

That sounds like a misunderstanding. Federal grants usually have excessively strict restrictions on what you can do with the money. To the extent that labs can't pay many reasonable expenses if they don't have other sources of funding. Unless the project is particularly material-heavy, direct costs should be mostly labor costs, such as PhD student stipends and tuition, postdoc salaries, and summer salary for the PI.

thehoff 2y ago
I agree that this may be a misunderstanding. Federal grant proposals require budgets that outline how you intend to spend those dollars along with text describing those line items. Some of this can be extremely detailed. These agencies have a lot of restrictions so yes, other sources are required in many cases. Then as you spend those funds many of these grants will require monthly or quarterly (or even more frequent) text and budget updates.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Granted I didn't see the budget breakdown, just the total and what I saw spent. Could have been salaries towards people whose work was invisible to me but still important to the grant.