Universities ‘decline charity research grants due to fall in public funding’

This must not be about indefensible increased funding from the public purse during austerity. The real backstory here is research income as an end in itself, for rankings and because of university financialization. Researchers will do work they work they do at marginal cost when on full time permanent contracts. The difficulty - scam - is that universities cost research internally at marginal cost, but charge the public purse full cost.

A partial solution might be for charities to recognize the full costs of research and to include an "overhead" or indirect cost component in them. This will reduce the mount of money flowing to direct research costs but surely that is better than the current situation of turning back funding because of lack of support? The reason many charities do not support the full (or even partial) costs of research is that donors don't like to fund administrative costs. That's understandable, but it is also unrealistic. In Canada (as in many countries), charities not only don't fund indirect costs, but they are increasingly demanding institutions contribute to the direct costs through matching programs. This makes their grant funding appear to go further but it does no such thing. What it often leads to is a shell game where funds are moved around to bolster the appearance - but with zero impact on the work getting done. Even worse, this type of matching requirement effectively excludes some institutions from consideration of applying, concentrating the submitting scientists within the richest institutions. This reduces competition and undermines the quality evaluation of research applications. No longer is merit the criteria of selection, its the depth of the applicants pockets. Hopefully, the charities and government agencies will come to their senses and realize this is a road to poorer returns and lower quality science. We should be funding the best and in full.

I don't believe universities have declined any charity research grant. They are far too greedy to say no to any form of income. Can the author give one example of a declined research grant? Or please change the title of the article, as it does not correspond to reality. Universities are kicking and screaming trying to get more money from charities/government, because that is what they always do. But declining money? Not a chance in hell.