The university takes an overhead charge on any grant money, perhaps 40% of the total. The professor can then use the rest of the money to purchase equipment (computers, tape recorders paper), pay research assistants (grad students), travel to conferences, buy datasets or software like SPSS, or pay themselves summer salary or extra salary.
If your research requires none of these things, and you have tenure and don't care about showing your field that you are capable of bringing in grant money to help fund your department, then you don't need to worry about grant money. This is probably less than 1% of the tenured professors.
It also has to do with ego; your peers will know who is bringing in the big grants and who is not.
If your research requires none of these things, and you have tenure and don't care about showing your field that you are capable of bringing in grant money to help fund your department, then you don't need to worry about grant money. This is probably less than 1% of the tenured professors.
It also has to do with ego; your peers will know who is bringing in the big grants and who is not.