Founder & Director at #InnoEUsphere Nurturing skills, designing futures. Co-founder of PM Agora.
This story is becoming increasingly uneasy. The numbers say it all, but the reality they reveal is even harder to digest. We simply cannot continue like this. The current “apply everywhere” logic has become toxic, inefficient, and deeply unfair. Calls showing an 80% increase in applications in one year are a red flag. With the majority of calls now facing success rates below 5%, we are crossing the line between competitiveness and absurdity. It’s becoming inexcusable for organisations to apply under every possible call just to stay visible or relevant. What are we doing? Flooding systems, exhausting evaluators, burning out teams, and in the process, undermining the credibility of our own field. And what is the Commission doing with this overwhelming surge? They see it. They know the pressure on their evaluation systems, and the reality that good proposals, strong partnerships, and months of work are now more likely to be discarded than assessed. This is not about blame; it’s about #responsibility, a key message I have personally highlighted in our PM AGORA some days ago. If Europe wants quality, innovation, and long-term value, then both sides — applicants and institutions — need to rethink the model. Because when excellence has less than a 5% chance to be heard, the system is no longer working. It’s time to pause, reflect, and redesign, before we lose the very ecosystem we have spent decades building. European Commission Roberto Zanon Alessandro Carbone Andreas Stefanidis Leonardo Lorusso
EU and international Projects and Funds consultant and trainer. Inclusion - Education - Health
💣 A Funding System Under Pressure: Horizon Europe’s Application Explosion ‼️ The numbers just released by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) are striking. More than 3,400 proposals have been submitted to just five Horizon Europe calls, with some actions showing an 80% increase in one year. 📈 The 2025 call for Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society alone attracted 1,331 applications, setting a record for the social sciences and humanities. The ERA Fellowships call reached 1,758 proposals, an 85% rise compared to 2024. Other calls, such as Research Infrastructures and Reforming and Enhancing the R&I system, followed the same trend. This explosion of applications is not an isolated episode. As I discussed in my recent article on Erasmus+ (https://lnkd.in/eE-2rbME), EU funding programmes are experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand, fundamentally reshaping how they work. 📉 The implications are profound. The higher the number of applications, the lower the success rates, and the more unequal the playing field becomes. For applicants, this means months of work and growing uncertainty. For the European Commission, its Directorates-General and Executive Agencies, it means confronting the challenge of redesigning evaluation systems that are reaching their limits. If this trend continues, the next Multiannual Financial Framework will need to rethink not only budgets but also accessibility, fairness and sustainability across all programmes. Otherwise, we risk a situation where brilliant ideas and solid partnerships will keep competing in an arena with vanishing chances of success. This is not a criticism, but an invitation to reflection. The explosion in proposals is also a sign of vitality, of organisations that believe in Europe’s programmes. But it is time to ask how we can channel this energy more effectively, to ensure that Europe’s funding remains both ambitious and accessible. Read the statistics below: https://lnkd.in/eUCeyfU7 #HorizonEurope #EUFunds #Research EURAXESS EASSH – European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities EARTO - European Association of Research and Technology Organisations EUF - European University Foundation European University Association League of European Research Universities (LERU) Manuel Segovia-Martinez Tally Hatzakis Alicia Gómez Campos Panagiotis Kokkinakos Sutra
The urge problem is not the call for proposals. The fake life are entities applying for everything they find and most of them having even no root on the ground. EU fail into chasing the real impact. This make work of those pushing and trying to reach real needs to be sent behind. How can an organisation apply for 100 projects in one call period? Effectivity is null, efficiency if touched... When projects are granted, no work done because we are chasing another call series.
The number of applications submitted across all calls is overwhelming, making it hard to achieve acceptable success rates. Without stable staff, the quality and impact of projects suffer. Erasmus needs more uniformity among national agencies and experienced, well-paid evaluators. Quality should be consistent across all. Rewards projects and organizations with sucess projects.
EU and international Projects and Funds consultant and trainer. Inclusion - Education - Health
3wI completely agree with you. I also agree that the Commission and, more broadly, the executive agencies are certainly aware of this trend. However, I believe that the answer to this problem cannot be delayed. Waiting for the next Multiannual Financial Framework, starting in 2028, would already be too late. It would mean undermining, for the next two and a half years, the effectiveness of programmes such as Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, CERV, LIFE, and many others that have now become almost entirely inaccessible. The Commission and the agencies occasionally launch consultations, but from my experience, having taken part in several of them, I have rarely seen any significant change. Erasmus+ has remained virtually identical from 2021 to 2025, while the landscape has changed completely. Many inputs and suggestions from agencies and experts have been shared, yet very few have been implemented, except for the recent introduction of a ceiling on the number of applications, which is quite telling. The same applies to Horizon Europe and others. It is essential that the Commission and agencies engage with experts and stakeholders and start finding solutions now, not only when the next financial framework begins.