Imperial College professor Stefan Grimm ‘was given grant income target’

These HR people think they can use words to mean whatever they want them to mean. There is nothing 'informal' about Wilkins email. It could hardly be more formal: "...should you fail to meet the objective outlined, I will need to consider your performance in accordance with the formal College procedure for managing issues of poor performance (Ordinance ­D8) …" Shocking.

This is what happens when research income is made an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Institutions get lauded for doing well on this, not least in this magazine http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/imperial-college-london-back-at-top-of-research-council-income-table/2017067.article Moreover, the THE university rankings use research income as a criterion. Professor Grimm's sad letter make the important point - the amount of money can bear no relation to the importance of the research. The best research universities, and university researchers should surely be those who do most with least, not those who are the biggest grant getters ? The THE should take the lead by removing research income as a criterion in its rankings.