Blog
Practical guides and data-driven insights for writing competitive EU grant proposals.
EU grant proposals fail for predictable reasons — weak novelty framing, wrong funding scheme, untested consortia. CriteriaI benchmarks your proposal against 54,884 funded projects before you submit.
Median consortium size by funding scheme, from 20,303 funded Horizon Europe projects: 14 partners for RIA, 17 for IA, 6 for CSA, plus country spread and where funded partners come from.
Analysis of 21,200 funded Horizon Europe projects: median and quartile EU contribution for RIA, IA, CSA, ERC, MSCA and EIC, plus budget per partner and typical project duration.
What to do after rejection: how to read your Evaluation Summary Report, when an evaluation review is worth requesting, what the Seal of Excellence is worth, and how to rebuild for resubmission.
The 2026-2027 application form cut the page limit and simplified sections 2.1 and 3.1. Full section-by-section page budget, formatting rules, and what happens if you go over.
Lump sum funding pays a fixed amount per completed work package instead of reimbursing actual costs. How Type 1 and Type 2 differ, how to build the detailed budget table, and what evaluators check.
How Horizon Europe expert evaluators are selected, what they do during proposal evaluation, and how understanding their perspective improves your own proposals.
Where to find open Horizon Europe calls, how to read a call topic, and what to check before you start writing your proposal.
How EU funding rates work across Horizon Europe action types — what percentage of costs the EU covers, how indirect costs are calculated, and the key exceptions.
A practical guide to searching the CORDIS database — what data it contains, how to use its filters, and how to go beyond basic search for proposal preparation.
Deep dive into the three Horizon Europe award criteria — what evaluators score, how the 0–5 scale works, and what distinguishes a 3 from a 5.
The European Commission has proposed EUR 175 billion for the next framework programme (2028–2034). Here is what has been announced and what it means for researchers and innovators.
A step-by-step guide to structuring your Horizon Europe proposal around the three evaluation criteria — Excellence, Impact, and Implementation — to maximise your chances of funding.
How EU grant proposals are evaluated — from submission to funding decision. Learn about the scoring system, threshold requirements, evaluation panels, and what happens after you submit.
A practical comparison of Horizon Europe funding instruments — Research and Innovation Actions, Innovation Actions, Coordination and Support Actions, and EIC programmes. Know which one fits your project.
The consortium can make or break your Horizon Europe proposal. Learn the requirements, what evaluators look for in partner composition, and strategies for finding the right partners.
Why technically strong proposals still get rejected. A breakdown of the most frequent mistakes in Horizon Europe proposals, mapped to the three evaluation criteria.
A clear breakdown of the Horizon Europe programme structure — three pillars, six thematic clusters, five missions, and where your research fits in.
Novelty is central to the Excellence criterion. Learn how to articulate what is genuinely new about your approach, position it against the state of the art, and avoid the most common mistakes.