What OP needs is enough financial stability and political will that they can do whatever they want. This can be slowly achieved by grinding at a corporation, taking political control and grinding or by violence / threat of violence.
There's of course a lot of bullshit, but you can sort of choose the tradeoff between bullshit and career development/stability. If you're OK with a high chance of never getting a permanent job, in many places you can do practically whatever you want.
And if you e.g. know how to code, you can usually go to the industry churn as a backup when your grant streak runs out.
But yes, in the bigger picture, the latter are the sustainable course of action. There's only so many, or rather frew, grants.