Dishonesty in Grants

I recently saw the movie Fat Head. It is an interesting documentation on diet, but it includes some comments on grants.

Grants are the payments of funds generally to establish a program of research or investigation.

In Fat Head, two types of grants are mentioned. One is an advance of funds from a private or public company, and the second is an advance of funds from a Federal government department.

The recipients of those funds are usually academicians associated with various universities. Since the grants are on an annual basis, the recipients usually recognize that in order to receive additional grants for subsequent years, they must come up with results which are consistent with the ideology or plan of the grantor.

An example of a private industry grant, might be one from a pharmaceutical company which is asking for research on the safety of a medicinal material. It is obvious to the grant receiver that the pharmaceutical company wishes to show safety in use of the material and the investigator must come up with a good safety report in order to receive subsequent grants. In fact, this compromises the scientific integrity of the grant receiver.

In the case of a federal department as a grantor, an example might be the Department of Energy funding an investigation on climate change caused by carbon dioxide. The grantee, fully knowing the department's position on CO2 and climate change, is then encouraged to find data which will support the departments position. Again, this compromises the scientific integrity of the grantee.

This is not to say that all grants are bad, but most of them are. It is difficult to find a grant which is completely clear of political implications.

I don't have any specific suggestions on how grants might be controlled in order to maintain scientific integrity. One way might be to eliminate government grants completely. This would be consistent with present efforts to control government expenditures and reduce the size and power of government. Government has its own laboratories, which can conduct research on about any subject. Government laboratories can also manipulate data, but results would be interpreted by the news media and the general public as more questionable than if the research had been performed in a third-party academic institution.