Blackburn perceived a significant flaw in this system: “The process favors grants that cannot be faulted—research that seems guaranteed to succeed. The exciting papers you publish aren’t risk-averse, or the work wouldn’t have been done.” Yet she quickly added that a researcher can finesse this liability: “Countering this tendency to support more cautious research is the fact that the grant itself is not a contract.” While a grant may need to be worded adroitly so that it fits within semantic parameters, the research lab can pursue questions beyond the concrete, careful aims laid out in the
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