What is the feasibility of a Coanda/Magnus effect wing airplane?
A lot of research grants are wasted on scams or projects making exorbitant claims. See it this way: The people who judge an idea grant-worthy need to spend the money they have available somehow, and if they were clever enough to pick winners all the time, they would not work in a government bureaucracy.

On the other hand, who is to judge what idea is really good before it has been tried? You have to accept some losses if you want to move outside of safe bets - only then can new ground be broken.

NASA funded a researcher for more than three decades who was only working on joined wing projects. It's easy to see that they are a non-starter, but this guy built his career on that particular hoax.