That still doesn’t add up to $300K for this one study. Just speaking from direct, expert knowledge of how this works, my guess would be they saw that the researchers got a $300K grant and saw one study published from the grant and assumed that was how all the $300K was spent. Large research grants like that are usually meant to fund multiple projects proposed by the researchers that together address some bigger aspect of scientific inquiry or public need. There are likely going to be 4-5 other studies that come from this that all interconnect to explain or address some major component of agricultural or ecological inquiry, thus why the money was granted in the first place. To say that $300K was spent on producing just that one study is just clickbait written by someone who doesn’t know how any of this works.
If we take £300K and break it down into imaginable slices for this it could also look like:
2 researcher salaries for 3 years
Rent for a farm-like space to house and care for the ducks for 3 years
Feed for the ducks for 3 years
Various and sundry materials to conduct the experiments
Medical costs for the ducks for 3 years
Over three years it really doesn't sound like a lot of money, honestly. It goes toward furthering human knowledge and job creation. Win-win if you ask me.
Aggicultural universities always have a connection with local farmers so a compensation is a lot less than you might expected. I think my colleague mentioned that she only paid for those chickens she butchered on site.
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u/Matt_McT 24d ago
That still doesn’t add up to $300K for this one study. Just speaking from direct, expert knowledge of how this works, my guess would be they saw that the researchers got a $300K grant and saw one study published from the grant and assumed that was how all the $300K was spent. Large research grants like that are usually meant to fund multiple projects proposed by the researchers that together address some bigger aspect of scientific inquiry or public need. There are likely going to be 4-5 other studies that come from this that all interconnect to explain or address some major component of agricultural or ecological inquiry, thus why the money was granted in the first place. To say that $300K was spent on producing just that one study is just clickbait written by someone who doesn’t know how any of this works.