In order to get funding the researcher has to (1) be able to point at past work in a specific field and (2) be able to state what the research is supposed to find out.

Think about that one for a second!

Admittedly funders look askance, and rightfully so, at a proposal that, when you down to it, says, "Please give me and my chums a million dollars so we can screw around for a couple of years."  But, in the US, the more likely it is that your research is not research the greater the chances of being funded as research.  

Except if your field, e.g., nuclear physics, opens the way for the US military to kill large numbers of people.  

There's lots of money for that.


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre