Page limit

The limit applies to Part B and it is hard. A research or innovation action is typically capped at 45 pages, a coordination and support action at 30, and the first stage of a two-stage call at 10. Some instruments set their own figure, and the call text is the authority.

Excess pages are not penalised by evaluators. They are removed before evaluators see them. The submitted PDF carries a watermark stating that everything beyond the limit was disregarded, and the experts read a truncated document without knowing what was cut. Proposals lose their conclusions, their risk tables and their exploitation plans this way.

What counts towards the limit is the narrative. Certain annexes and the standard forms sit outside it, and which ones varies by call. The call text says, and assuming carries a real cost.

The limit shapes the writing more than most applicants allow for. Forty-five pages across three criteria, a work plan, a consortium description and a risk analysis leaves roughly a page per work package. Proposals that begin with fifteen pages of state of the art arrive at Implementation with nothing left and score badly on the criterion that was easiest to satisfy.

Write to the limit deliberately: allocate pages per section before writing, in proportion to the marks each carries. Cutting a finished 60-page draft down to 45 in the final week produces a document that reads as though it was cut down in the final week, because it was.