> And where does the actual language come from? Millar is already at work on his next project to answer that question, too. In some preliminary data analysis of all previous NIH calls for grant applications, he found that all of the hype adjectives identified in this month’s study also appear in information from the NIH telling people how to apply for grants. It may be the case that the rise in hype words in applications has happened, in part, because regulators planted the seeds.

(Emphasis mine)

This is the essential point, buried in the article. Granting agencies cause a lot of this nonsense. The grant assessment criteria they provide will literally say things like: “demonstrate the work is novel and transformational.”