This post related to Research Integrity & Ethics. I work for a P.I. in a project. I was initially funded by my hosting organization to write a project proposal for a funding dedicated to supporting postdoc researchers with innovative research questions.
I wrote the project proposal (am the first author), in which figures an hypothesis that we may call "A", and stated that all research activities would develop on that hypothesis. After writing the project, the mentor was so excited about the project, that he proposed to be entitled as P.I. of the project so to give a bursary to a doctoral student of his/er, yet the postdoc would lead the project. The postdoc said "ok". The project passed an international review and got funded.
After one month since the beginning of the project, the postdoc started to work on hypothesis A. The P.I. stated that hypothesis A was stupid. To be more specific, s/he said that it did not hold the fundamental prerequisite for being taken seriously in a scholarly context. The P.I. removed hypothesis A from the project - and there is evidence that for more than 1 year, the concepts at the basis of hypothesis A were never mentioned. He set the postdoc to work on another (slightly similar) project.
Since the grant application was written by the postdoc for an innovative research, and that research was funded, while the P.I. chose to remove it, is the postdoc entitled to work on his ideas during his work contract?