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The math of MSCA applications: - Suppose writing an application takes 2 months. - Total cost of hiring a PhD is maybe €5k/month (??) - Applying costs €10k. - Total cost for 21k proposals: €210M - Total funding: €400M So half the budget is wasted on just applications.

That's a fun observation, and applies in general to early-career researchers: Significant portion of your productivity is used towards applying for grants/positions. One proposed solution to this is result-based funding: cacm.acm.org/opinion/fund...

Yeah I've been thinking the same: say you get 3-5 years PhD "for free" and then repeatedly get the next 3 years of funding based on the past 3 years. This of course has the major drawback (as does the current system) that success of your PhD is amplified massively to success of your career...