You&#x27;re fooling yourself (or someone is fooling you). The small numbers just don&#x27;t make sense. $1k-10k is such a miniscule portion of the total cost of even a grad student+. No PI with even the vaguest hint of a conscience is using uncertain 1k-10k increments as anything other than purely supplementary funding; if one project doesn&#x27;t work out your student is done. In fact, I doubt that most universities would even <i>let</i> a professor take on&#x2F;keep a student with that sort of funding scheme. And it certainly wouldn&#x27;t be enough for a tenure case.<p>You do realize that the average CS professor in the US spends many thousands of dollars per year, just on conference travel, just for themselves, right? $5k or even $10k for a side project really isn&#x27;t substantive.<p>+ which in the sciences is usually in the mid five to low six figure range, <i>before</i> the cost of lab materials, travel, etc.