SAVE Award 2011 Environmental Protection Agency

Having been an academic researcher before managing outside government research grants, I have seen that academic researchers applying for grants often make up extravagant salary costs in the budgets accompanying grant proposals, just to round to the maximum advertised award. For example, a professor earning $120 k/year might charge $195 K/year for her service on the grant. There is no hard review of these budgeted costs... more »

As a former academic researcher now managing external research grants, I have seen the shameful and growing dependence of research universities on indirect costs coming in though research grants. These supposed costs should cover the fixed expenses the institutions have in providing the researchers with support services, from office, to secretaries, to labs. These costs are fixed for each institution, ranging from 40... more »

When submitting budgets for research proposals, researchers try to allocate all the advertised award money. So, e.g. for a $300 K announced award, one sees proposals ranging from $299 K to $300 K exactly. In practice, these preliminary budgets rarely turn out to be accurate, and though expenses come up that were not anticipated, sometimes expenses turn out lower. However, the investigators conducting the research for... more »