Diederik Stapel received a 2.2 million euro grant

Diederik Stapel received 2.2 million euro in subsidies from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek). The money will probably not be reclaimed, because the main part of it has been used to pay the salaries of PhD students, writes NRC Handelsblad.

“This is  complicated legally and it is to be questioned if it is worth the effort, says Chairman Jos Engelen in an interview with the newspaper. To the question if the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research will reclaim the subsidies, he answers: “We will initially leave this to justice and Stapel’s employer, Tilburg University, to decide.”

In spite of recent cases of scientific fraud, the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research sees no reason for stricter supervision on the financing of scientific research.

Engelen maintains the system is solid: researchers check each other and fraud will surely be discovered. His organization only subsidizes excellent researches, he says. “And excellent researchers are 100 percent reliable. Excellent researchers don’t commit fraud.” Engelen calls the fraudulent professors “exceptional figures”. He says nothing is wrong with the financing. “The system works; it’s the people who are sometimes unfit.”

Part of the interview has been posted online.