Swiss scheme signals promise of EU ambition to introduce anonymous grant applications
Photo credits: marchmeena / BigStock
The new EU research commissioner, Ekaterina Zaharieva, has said she favours blind evaluation in the bloc’s Horizon Europe research programme, to make sure academics do not get an unfair boost just because of the reputation of their institutions.
A Commission trial of blind applications took place in 2023 and 2024, although it’s unclear if the results will be made public. But some countries, including Switzerland, have already implemented the idea, with some success.
The Spark grants scheme, run by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), anonymises applications. This…
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