
Image: Jennifer Jacquemart, European Commission
All two-stage 2023-24 calls in Horizon Europe R&D programme except one will be involved
The EU is to start an extensive pilot of blind evaluation for grant proposals in its Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, despite some in the R&I community being sceptical of the approach.
EU R&I commissioner Mariya Gabriel (pictured) sketched out details of the pilot in a session of the European Parliament’s research committee last month, at which MEPs quizzed her on the European Commission’s plans. The pilot is intended to assess whether blind evaluation—meaning evaluators will not be aware of the identity of applicants—could reduce any bias among evaluators towards prestigious institutions.