4: Grant bureacracy and politics. I have heard of professors and phds that spend 10% to 20% of their time on writing grant applications and fulfilling related bureaucratic requirements like writing progress reports. Furthermore, they tend to focus on topics that increase the likelihood of getting the research grant, instead of going where they honestly believe would be best. In the US, this leads many to claim their research is security-relevant, whereas in the EU, researchers try to find a sustainability-angle in their research in order to get their grants.