<i>&gt; because they cannot get any other funding</i><p>Really? I seriously question that &quot;because&quot;. If I had FU money I would definitely start my own lab and pay for research out of pocket. Science is fantastically fun if you don&#x27;t have to care about funding (and by extension tenure) and only publish because it&#x27;s nice to get feedback from your peers (rather than because you need X papers to get your next grant and keep your job).<p>Conversely, writing grants is a total bore.<p>A &quot;because&quot; I would be more willing to buy: if you made that kind of money for yourself, odds are you spent your prime years achieving that and therefore haven&#x27;t dedicated the time to science that&#x27;s necessary to be at the top of your field.