Southerly: It's Sad that You're Leaving Us, Steve
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Yes, it's quite widely celebrated. Errm, by some people at least.
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To extrapolate from the CRI I used to work for -- I estimate that it must cost around $0.50 in administration for each $1.00 awarded (which doesn't strike me as very efficient).
Aren't university scientists compelled to pass on $1.15 overhead for every $1 of research funding? I guess it's not all administration, but good god it's a lot.
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dc_red wrote:
Aren't university scientists compelled to pass on $1.15 overhead for every $1 of research funding?
To clarify: my estimation of $0.50 per $1.00 is before the money is delivered to the successful bidder, i.e. the cost of getting the money from MoRST to the research organization.
The research organization's overhead charge (i.e. the $1.15 per $1.00 of grant money) is an additional deduction from the delivered grant money. Of course, some of this money may be re-invested to pay for bidding on other grants.
Incidentally, the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US tries to prevent this sort of thing by stipulating that the research grant can't be spent on overheads in other countries. As a consequence, a former colleague of mine at Canterbury was told that they couldn't accept grant money from the NSF, i.e. they weren't allowed to bring money into a university that was laying off staff for lack of funds. Go figure.
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Best wishes for your future venture, David. I think sometimes it is a good idea to have a change in work. I remember when I first came to NZ and started on my first job, an old chippy said to me: "The building trade's no good in this country. If I was you lad, I'd go down to the wharf and throw your tools in the sea as far as you can." I have thought many times, he could have been right. Best of luck.
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I have a PhD and 15 years experience and I get paid less than a kindy teacher
hmm, I'm a kindergarten teacher. Not quite sure what to make of that remark, but I won't take it too badly. I could go off on one, but you've obviously never taught 3 and 4 year olds so I'll let it go. After all, when people ask me what I do for a living, I am oft heard to say " I play all day, what do you do, SUCKER?" . Anyway, well done, David. Much luck to you. I've enjoyed your articles, and shall continue to do so, and I hope that someone pays you, like they pay me (quite well, to tell the truth) to do what you love to do.
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Yay the kindie teachers!
And good luck aDavid- sounds exciting!
With regard to research funding: been working with Simon Brown from nanoclusterdevices at UC . He's got quite an interesting take on it, and would be worthwhile chatting to. Current govt policy seems still to contain a measure of "we can't pick winners" thinking. But what they call "the valley of death" - the big gap between a great idea or an academic research project and having products developed that are ready for venture capitalists to move in- is littered with the bones of once enthusiastic inventors.
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