Is the evaluation fair?

In general; yes! In most funding programs your proposal is read and scored by individual experts (3-5) and discussed in a panel of experts giving a final score. All proposals are then ranked for funding in a meeting of all the panels. The number of proposals funded depends on the budget; money is given to proposal from top of the list and down.

In this process you may consider:

In the first stage you need to be loved by the expert so that you get a high score
In the second stage the individual experts fight for their preferred proposals. In this stage you must not lose points. The expert loving your proposal must be able to defend it. You must help him/her with this by showing no shortcomings in your text. It is therefore important that you have answered all questions fully.
In the third stage all proposals are ranked and final adjustments done. Here it is important that your proposal idea is remembered and easily communicated between the evaluators. You need to stand out to be able to move up on the list. Again the first sentence, the abstract and a clear problem/idea is important. At this stage all that can give arguments for moving you up the list is important. The evaluators need something concrete to move you up. What can give you extra points here may be; gender aspects, user involvement, innovation management, SME participation, a good risk plan or anything else from the call text or work program that goes in your favour.

The EC H2020 criteria for 5 the highest score is:

5 — Excellent: the proposal successfully addresses all relevant aspects of the criterion; any shortcomings are minor.

So your strategy for writing the proposal is:

Create excitement, get loved
Show no weaknesses
Offer something extra

Do not get disappointed if you are not funded. The competition is very hard in all programs. Do not blame the evaluators. If you did not get funded your idea was not good enough or you did not present it in an excellent way. Learn and try again. Even if the process is fair you need a little bit of luck to get funded…

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