[mym1990]

It's weird to say 'only' since I assume that a lot more went into this effort other than funding. There are a lot of initiatives that have a lot of funding, but little success. Either way, this result is certainly better than nothing, or waiting years/decades for public funding.

[Talanes]

'Only' implies that the funding was necessary, not that the funding was fully responsible. Also consider that 'only' was said by the researchers. From their pov the effort is a given, because that is what they control, while the funding is an anomalous outside factor.