For £1.8m I could run my flight safety research lab, with a continuous staff of about 4, for 8 years, generating probably 20 research papers on flight safety research subjects, giving numerous talks on how to achieve safety improvements to flying clubs, conferences, flying instructors and aircraft designers, and qualifying at-least half a dozen doctoral level researchers and 1-2 postdocs (who will then go on to become university lecturers) in flight safety who can then go and work for another 30+ years each in various aviation organisations pushing forward the boundaries of aeronautical technology and safety.
For the same money a paid birdwatcher in Bath is going to try and re-introduce the British equivalent of the dodo into an area full of natural preditors (I used to live there, and on my evening run usually saw owls, kestrels and foxes on the prowl) to see what will happen. What will happen of-course is the same as last time; they'll all get eaten.
A colleague of mine (he researches atmospheric science towards understanding pollution and global warming) refers to these scientists as "ptarmigan counters and rock botherers".
I don't dispute that this research *may* have some value, but really, an environmental science PhD student costs about £50k over 3 years - say three of those, a postdoctoral research fellow for half a dozen years, equipment and overheads, and maybe you come to £500k. What the hell are they doing with the other £1.3m?
G