More thoughts on this:

Assuming my model of how academia works is correct (can someone comment on this?), persuading grantmakers could be a better use of time than trying to persuade researchers directly for a few reasons:

• There are probably many researchers for each grantmaker, so personal communication with individual grantmakers gives greater leverage.
• Grantmakers probably have less personal investment in the research they judge, which would mean less motivated cognition to go through with the research.
• Grantmakers are more likely to be interested in what will be beneficial for society as a whole, whereas individual researchers may be more more motivated by gaining status or solving problems for their own sake.