Success in Grant Funding: Towards a Method of Measuring Convergence of the Project Abstract to the Call

This study introduces a novel method to boost grant application success by analyzing the convergence between project abstracts and funding call texts using text mining. Focusing on Horizon 2020 data, it aims to identify how textual alignment affects funding outcomes and establish a quantifiable similarity threshold for eligibility. The research proposes a strategic framework to improve grant proposal competitiveness, especially benefiting institutions in the European Union with lower success rates, by providing a practical tool for enhancing grant writing processes. The findings are expected to fill a literature gap, offering empirical evidence on the relationship between textual similarity and funding success. This research not only has the potential to guide future grant writing practices but also provides guidelines for the internal (within the organization) application preselection, aiming to increase the effectiveness in obtaining research funds.