Research commissioner designate Ekaterina Zaharieva puts her weight behind moves to reduce bias by making the first stage of grant applications anonymous
Ekaterina Zaharieva, commissioner-designate for start-ups, research and innovation, on November 5, 2024. Photo credits: Laurie Dieffembacq / European Union
EU research commissioner designate Ekaterina Zaharieva has said she is in favour of blinded evaluation in Horizon Europe, telling the European Parliament during her hearing for the job earlier this month, “I'm in favour to continue to this blind evaluation process, because we should increase the trust in the programme.”
Here’s a primer of a recent pilot on which Zaharieva wants to build.
If you look at the numbers, the Horizon Europe research programme appears to favour prestigious, well-known organisations. As of November 2024, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) alone has amassed over €660 million in funding, more than all the organisations in Poland combined.
Meanwhile, the best performing university, Belgium’s KU Leuven, has won €264 million, around the same as Romanian organisations as a whole.
CNRS…
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