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.