A post on indirect cost is making a lot of rounds Of all the people who think this is a rip-off, let us play a simple game: Could you perform the same research with the same amount of money (in direct cost) starting out in your garage? Think through on all pieces that are needed beyond the core tech from comms, space, equipment, hr, admin,... This is a reason why deep tech startups need so much more money and time to even get on par with university labs. And even then they operate with for-profit pressures, limiting the topics they can study and length of time they have before calling quits! Yes there are pieces of the administration process that could be improved, but by and large American universities have a tremendous impact per dollar on economy and society @elonmusk you have been a role model for a generation of tech folks. Of all the people, we had hoped you would encourage not dismantle american reasearch leadership based out of non-profit universities. many of the deep tech at your companies was & is built by university types! AI, robotics, energy - are built on decades of nonprofit science before tech was mature enough to even be iterate upon in product focussed settings PS: This post is causing anxiety in academic circles! While the 60% is not from the net but from the total requested direct costs but from the total requested direct costs A lot of academics tried making nuanced arguments. But changing opinions with informed debate here may be tricky!