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by londons_explore 1439 days ago
I know a lot of people who apply for them... The vast majority of the projects everyone involved knows will shut up shop mere days after the funding ends. People buy equipment simply because they know they'll get to keep it after the project has folded. The whole team then pivots to the next project. There is zero chance of success of any of them - it's always more profitable to close down and use a different idea for the next round of fundings.

Maybe some of the projects will go somewhere, but there are a good chunk where even the project leads set off from the outset with the goal of getting as much EU money as possible and closing down as quickly as possible when the money stops.
3 comments
capableweb 1439 days ago
> I know a lot of people

> The vast majority of the projects everyone

How many people are we talking about? 100? 1000?

If there is on average 20 people involved with each project who received funding, that would be 340,000 people in total. If you know 1000 people who are doing this scam, then you know 0.2% of the people involved in these projects.

To extrapolate that all the projects are similar scams to what your acquaintances are doing, seems a bit irrational.

But even so, that you know 1000 people, 100 people or even 10 people performing identical scams of government funds, seems unlikely, but even so, that you would know so many who are scammers, seems to say more about you than anything about the Horizon 2020 programme.

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flakeoil 1439 days ago
"I know a lot of people who apply for them..."

Maybe you should complain to your corrupt friends instead who are stealing from the government.

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toyg 1439 days ago
Abuse exists in pretty much any aspect of procurement, from building roads with inflated contractor prices to producing "analysis" from consultants who happen to be friends with the relevant minister. The private sector is not immune either, with plenty of shareholders money being funneled to the sales guy with the best golf routine.

Part of the solution is better law enforcement, which would include whistleblowing on your corrupt friends. Part is better oversight - and here you should bring it up with your national government, since EU authorities typically have little power to impose that once money has been disbursed to local entities.

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