The smart grants are MUCH harder than the focused/specific call grants. If you didn’t succeed in the focused grants then be prepared to really have to up the game in the open ones. To give you an idea, the acceptance rate is around 2-4% depending on the submission quality and number… but either way it’s very tough. Then they also apply a portfolio approach, I.e. if you were the only healthcare proposal then you might get through with a comparatively weaker score (still >83-85% needed) but if there are 5 or 6 proposals you’d need to be in the top 2 assuming you still met the threshold.
There is no harm to doing it, it doesn’t preclude you from winning other grants or making other applications, but it’s notoriously difficult and specific funding calls are known to be much easier.
The smart grants are MUCH harder than the focused/specific call grants. If you didn’t succeed in the focused grants then be prepared to really have to up the game in the open ones. To give you an idea, the acceptance rate is around 2-4% depending on the submission quality and number… but either way it’s very tough. Then they also apply a portfolio approach, I.e. if you were the only healthcare proposal then you might get through with a comparatively weaker score (still >83-85% needed) but if there are 5 or 6 proposals you’d need to be in the top 2 assuming you still met the threshold.
There is no harm to doing it, it doesn’t preclude you from winning other grants or making other applications, but it’s notoriously difficult and specific funding calls are known to be much easier.
HTH