Last Sad Prof wrote:

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It needs to be pointed out that much of what the USM administration calls "research" is actually Contractual Service that doesn't lead to scholarship.  Applying known techniques to make old measurements needed by an industry for money is not research scholarship.  Research scholarship leads to new knowledge published in internationally recognized, refereed journals. Many government agencies that fund real university research will pay for summer salary, but not academic year salary. They view paying for academic year salary as turning a university into a factory.  On the other hand the military and defense agencies do fun academic year salary because they are buying "contracted research" from private companies and universities.  

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Last Sad Prof has really pointed at the fallacy of the MIDAS program, that it effectively rewards faculty who get "release-time" support for the academic year, plus full-time summer salary.  In contrast to USM, most universities don't call their office "Research and Sponsored Programs," but rather "Contracts and Grants." 

Research grants pay for summer salary, with NSF and most agencies not permitting more than 2 summer months support; the rationale being that university professors incorporate "research" into their academic-year duties.  While it may be possible to obtain "release-time" salary, that has been one of the first budget items cut from research grants.

In contrast, contracts cover SFT's ideal:  "an honest day's work for pay" because contracts assume that for a fixed sum of money, a university person will produce a fixed amount of results.  Note that in "research" one may obtain "negative results" through data that negates the null hypothesis.

Bottom line for MIDAS is that the professor "buys out" their teaching for the academic year, and the monies returned to the department (or school, college, etc.) are much less than that paid to the "replacement lecturer."  Thus, the university makes money on the contracted work, and can afford to "augment" the MIDAS-supported worker's take-home.