2024 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship(HE-MSCA-PF-2024)

[Nana021]

Last year, I received a score of 93% for my project proposal. This year, with the same proposal—carefully incorporating all the evaluators' suggestions—the score dropped to 76%. To say I’m surprised would be an understatement, especially considering that some of the comments are more than odd. Some seem completely arbitrary, while others are factually incorrect.

I believe this highlights significant flaws in the evaluation process. Either my proposal was severely overestimated last year or it has been seriously underestimated this year. It is bad, either way.

I wanted to ask: How long is the Seal of Excellence valid? Since I received one last year, can I still use it to apply for relevant calls this year?

Would love to hear insights from others who have experience with this.

[grasshopper44]

Last year, I received a score of 93% for my project proposal. This year, with the same proposal—carefully incorporating all the evaluators' suggestions—the score dropped to 76%. To say I’m surprised would be an understatement, especially considering that some of the comments are more than odd. Some seem completely arbitrary, while others are factually incorrect.

I believe this highlights significant flaws in the evaluation process. Either my proposal was severely overestimated last year or it has been seriously underestimated this year. It is bad, either way.

I wanted to ask: How long is the Seal of Excellence valid? Since I received one last year, can I still use it to apply for relevant calls this year?

Would love to hear insights from others who have experience with this.

I have had a very similar experience this year... My score dropped from last year's 92.2% to 75%.

[Nana021]

Last year, I received a score of 93% for my project proposal. This year, with the same proposal—carefully incorporating all the evaluators' suggestions—the score dropped to 76%. To say I’m surprised would be an understatement, especially considering that some of the comments are more than odd. Some seem completely arbitrary, while others are factually incorrect.

I believe this highlights significant flaws in the evaluation process. Either my proposal was severely overestimated last year or it has been seriously underestimated this year. It is bad, either way.

I wanted to ask: How long is the Seal of Excellence valid? Since I received one last year, can I still use it to apply for relevant calls this year?

Would love to hear insights from others who have experience with this.

I have had a very similar experience this year... My score dropped from last year's 92.2% to 75%.

As for the Seal of Excellence, you don't need one to reapply. You can reapply as long as your score is above 70%, I think.

Wow, that is really strange, but it really helps to know that I am not the only one!!

Yes, I know about the resubmission, I was wondering about the other opportunities, calls that are opened for candidates that have seal of excellence. Is it only this years seal oof excellence, or is last years worth still?

[grasshopper44]

Last year, I received a score of 93% for my project proposal. This year, with the same proposal—carefully incorporating all the evaluators' suggestions—the score dropped to 76%. To say I’m surprised would be an understatement, especially considering that some of the comments are more than odd. Some seem completely arbitrary, while others are factually incorrect.

I believe this highlights significant flaws in the evaluation process. Either my proposal was severely overestimated last year or it has been seriously underestimated this year. It is bad, either way.

I wanted to ask: How long is the Seal of Excellence valid? Since I received one last year, can I still use it to apply for relevant calls this year?

Would love to hear insights from others who have experience with this.

I have had a very similar experience this year... My score dropped from last year's 92.2% to 75%.

As for the Seal of Excellence, you don't need one to reapply. You can reapply as long as your score is above 70%, I think.

Wow, that is really strange, but it really helps to know that I am not the only one!!

Yes, I know about the resubmission, I was wondering about the other opportunities, calls that are opened for candidates that have seal of excellence. Is it only this years seal oof excellence, or is last years worth still?

Right, I realized I misunderstood your question... It will be at the discretion of each funding agency to decide whether an SOE from last year still counts, I think. The SOE itself doesn't seem to have an expiration date.

[lknezev]

Do anyone know Is the Seal of Excellence awarded each year for proposals scored above 85%, or this scoring varies as well based on the cut-off for funded projects ?

[Smth25]

Anyone getting into numerous steps of grant preparation and want to discuss any questions, there is a new thread on the topic: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1584

[Nana021]

Do anyone know Is the Seal of Excellence awarded each year for proposals scored above 85%, or this scoring varies as well based on the cut-off for funded projects ?

It is always the same

[Khers]

Are the reservations prioritized based on scores across all panels together? In other words, is the ranking among all panels or within the individual’s own panel? Additionally, if someone withdraws from the physics panel, do they take a reservation from the same physics panel, or are they assigned based on the overall ranking in another panel?”

[anonymousacademic]

Last year, I received a score of 93% for my project proposal. This year, with the same proposal—carefully incorporating all the evaluators' suggestions—the score dropped to 76%. To say I’m surprised would be an understatement, especially considering that some of the comments are more than odd. Some seem completely arbitrary, while others are factually incorrect.

I believe this highlights significant flaws in the evaluation process. Either my proposal was severely overestimated last year or it has been seriously underestimated this year. It is bad, either way.

I wanted to ask: How long is the Seal of Excellence valid? Since I received one last year, can I still use it to apply for relevant calls this year?

Would love to hear insights from others who have experience with this.

I have had a very similar experience this year... My score dropped from last year's 92.2% to 75%.

I had the opposite experience. Last year, I got 82%. I reworked the proposal only minimally (I had other grants in the pipeline that I was focusing on) and submitted it just in case it might work out. I got 97% this time. Truth be told, I think it is and was a strong proposal, so to me, it is the 82% score which seems like an outlier. (Of course, I am not impartial wrt to my own proposal ) In any case, I think what this illustrates is that Marie Curie is very much a lottery. A lot depends on which exact set of evaluators you end up with. Of course, luck is always an element in any grant system, but with Marie Curie, luck just seems to have an absurdly big role.

[spreeweg]

Hi all,

This was my first attempt with a host institution in Germany for EF-SOC. My score is 74% which is disappointingly low. Had prepared the application quite thoroughly with host supervisor and grant manager at the University according to MCSA guidelines.

The feedback is quite arbitrary and despite mentioning many strengths, it lists weaknesses which are mostly to do with the state of the art. (Like connection with this discipline is not made clear with another discipline). Some questions raised in methodology which are in fact answered in various places in the proposal. It seems that the reviewers made a quick judgement based on the abstract (or were very keen to reject the project out rightly). This is quite evident considering a striking error in their comments, where they mention the name of a wrong institute in my city, but not my host institution, pointing out for the two way transfer of knowledge -

''In terms of transfer of knowledge from the researcher to the host, the proposal does not address in sufficient detail how the researcher's specific expertise stands our and relates to the (Wrong host institution name)''

That is very strange for me, as I have been previously associated with my host institution and provide a lot of detail regarding this in the specific section for it.

Is there a way to redress such an error? I would at least want to point out this error given the hardwork that one puts in such applications, though perhaps a reversal of decision is no more an option.

Also, could it be that this reviewer is someone close to the institution or the country I am applying from, who might make such an error. Seems like someone familiar to the institute named it (unknowingly?) in the report, where conventionally my field of studies is known for. But then its so wrong, as throughout my application it is quite clear that I am applying from another host institution!

Any suggestions are welcome on how to go about this, including to shrug it off and move on, for the arbitrariness of it all.