So that you WILL perform/produce! Surely it’s obvious that people will do better research if they have peace of mind? And what about rewarding older people for a lifetime of effort, instead of kicking them in the ass the moment the creative juices start to flow less freely? Sorry, this is not directed at you, cvj, but this system really sucks. And all that is under the highly dubious assumption that it is administered fairly!

Or is it perhaps the case that at universities like yours, grants are in practice almost never discontinued?

As it should be, it is nothing whatsoever to do with the university, and everything to do with the quality of what I -the individual researcher- do. Sure it’s stressful, but yes, if I don’t perform/produce, why should I continue to be paid?

-cvj

Oh no. You mean that this pays a large chunk of your salary?! But that’s barbarous — how can you buy a house or anything on such an uncertain income stream? I’m not saying of course that there is any question about the worth of your work, I just mean that anything in the control of bureaucrats is bound to be uncertain. Isn’t it incredibly stressful? It’s like not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Or is it perhaps the case that at universities like yours, grants are in practice almost never discontinued?

Cheers,

-cvj

This is a good questiion and not borne of ignorance. Thanks for asking. Here’s a rough answer off the top of my head:

Well, we theorists need to live and breathe and pay the bills just like experimentalists. So we need support for that. (Our employers typically pay us to teach and do service-type tasks, not research…..at least in the USA’s way of doing things.) Then we must support the salaries of students and postdocs. Most places also try to have a healthy stream of visitors in the form of a seminar program. Then even tough many of us are turning to macs, our computers still break down, even the regular ones used for admin and preparation of documents, small computations, etc…..and some of us also need more high-end machines for intense computations, simulations, etc. The there are all sorts of incidental things related to facilities, etc that can cost real money too a research programme. Attending conferences are actually quite a way down the list….. and I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

Cheers,

-cvj

Q: What causes a string to break and re-configure?
A: A force management event

This sounds rather like those new-fangled things 100-level physics textbook writers invent every now and again as whole new ways of learning classical mechanics (because for some reason people neve explain the old ways keep going bad).

-cvj

BTW, this kind of introspection is said to be necessary in the “real world” as well – as in “what useful addition to my resumé did I make in the last six months?”, “am I bringing in my employer at least twice as much revenue as I cost?” and so on. If you don’t have good answers, you may be in for a “force management event”, and your prospects for the next job may not be very good.