From my 25 year university prof life I can report that they view grants as milking the government and they joke about it. That attitude brings these weird sounding studies which are faked. Gov grants have a daunting structure of proofs and reporting requirements. All of which can be easily faked. My department tried to require profs to get grants to pay for their own salaries, but it’s not easy to force profs. The groups with grants have meetings where they vote for each other’s proposals to be funded, so it’s all a set up. Recipients must go to DC to review proposals and vote to award funds, another set up. I often thought people who are independent ought to be on review panels.

The whole current government grant thing is a web of deceit and must be shut down IMO. I believe it is nothing more than another money laundering scheme. Universities reap huge amounts of taxpayer money for doing nonsense "research" as well. State governments get grants to build bridges to nowhere. Any and all legitimate needs for grants must also require a detailed forensic audit of how the grant money is spent with public transparency. No more "research" on the mating instincts of a never before seen or heard of species. Use that money to get people off the streets and safe and a pathway to becoming a contributing member of society, instead of lining the pockets of university professors, or dubious government agencies. 😇

There projects seem like backdoors to get people in to the country or provide them a cover to be in the country if they are already here.

What want to know is who got the money and the receipts of the whatever they were doing. If they did not do it then they must repay in 6 months