Anonymoustache brings the heat on NIH grant "gifts"

Following our little discussion of whether or not NIH grants should be viewed as largesse or something a little more…professional, our good blog friend Anonymoustache teed off:

Not to be framing anything here, but I believe the best analogy for NIH grants is investment capital, and it would serve us all well to look at it and think about it in that fashion. Think about the NIH as a venture capital firm that has a really large portfolio. It makes calculated bets on a really large number of projects with a view to a two-fold return on investment: i) Increasing the body of scientific knowledge, and thereby ii) Generating advances in healthcare and medicine.

Go read the rest.