Erasmus+ Therapy – Rising Proposals & Harsh Evaluations
A panel on frustration, burnout and what needs to change
In this episode I’m joined by Henriette Hansen, Daiana Huber and Alessandro Melillo for what we ended up calling “Erasmus+ Therapy Session”. Over the last two calls, many in the community have seen record-high proposal numbers, tougher evaluations and rejections even with very strong scores. We talk about what’s driving the surge - cuts in national funding, more actors turning to Erasmus+, AI making it easier to generate applications – and how changes at national agency and Commission level around newcomers and “project factories” are playing out on the ground.
From there we move into the system and human consequences. On the system side: over-stretched evaluators, opaque feedback, the risk that quality drops if consortia are built mainly for policy optics, and the danger that people start losing trust in the evaluation process itself. On the human side we talk honestly about burnout, heartbreak and responsibility: writing seven big proposals in a year and failing them all; trying to hold together ecosystems built over 20 years when funding dries up; and feeling guilty for having developed expertise in a system that seems to punish experience. We finish with concrete suggestions – from two-step submissions and better support for evaluators to structured public conversations about evaluation practices – and an invitation for the Erasmus+ community to share failures and speak with a stronger, collective voice.
Time codes
02:21 Guest introduction and fly in
06:11 What is driving the surge in proposals?
18:40 System-level consequences
31:05 Community and individual impact
48:56 Are experienced organisations still welcome?
56:46 Closing reflections and messages
01:03:54 The toughest challenge
