It's not important enough for me to fund, but it is important enough for me to force you to fund.

The truth is that most academics like doing research. It's what makes them feel valuable. It probably doesn't need to cost that much, since it can basically be offered as a perk for teaching classes that are valued by others.

If we didn't have the dumb spoils system of IP, companies might be more willing to throw money at public researchers to work on stuff for them.