Today I received the evaluation report for Step 1 of my ERC Starting Grant application, which was unsurprisingly unsuccessful - as I promised in an earlier news item, I have decided to openly report the outcome of the evaluation to help normalize otherwise taboo discussions about lack of success in academia. I received a “B” (proposal of high quality but not sufficient to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation), which means I am blocked from applying for a further year. The comments from the 4 reviewers were actually extremely positive (their ratings included 7 “exceptional”, 3 “excellent”, and 2 “very good”), and the high-risk high-gain nature of the project was clearly appreciated. The main issue identified by more than one reviewers was that I probably put too much at once - a subset of the proposal focusing on 2/3 of the ideas I put out there would probably have stood a much better chance. This was a very useful experience, the reviewer comments were very helpful and I have to say somewhat reassuring, so at this point there’s not much more I can do than roll up my sleeves, while looking forward to trying again in 2024 taking this feedback into account!
